Mamata Banerjee on Friday told a core committee meeting of the Trinamul Congress that the party would go all out against the BJP in the first phase of a campaign from February 1 to 15 before the Assembly elections.

The meeting at the chief minister's residence in Calcutta was deemed a roll call of seniors in Trinamul ahead of Union home minister Amit Shah’s Bengal visit. But the meeting did not spring surprises by way of MLAs or MPs — other than the ones already expected — being conspicuous by their absence.

“Few were not there; they were not expected to attend anyway,” said a minister after the closed-door meeting.

According to sources, the Trinamul chief said the party would go fully into poll-mode from February 1, with intensive focus on every constituency and an extensive tour across the state by her. The first phase of the campaign would continue till February 15.

“First of all, she (Mamata) would conduct a tour of north Bengal. Then, the Jungle Mahal. These two were

areas where we had not fared well in the Lok Sabha polls in 2019. She likes prioritising tougher challenges,” said the minister.

The minister added that the broad contours of the campaign would be laid down directly by Mamata and, for now, there would be a lot of stress on areas such as the farmers’ movement nationally and the “bohiragawto (outsider)” BJP’s alleged insult of Bengal icons in its desperation to appropriate them ahead of the Assembly polls.

A senior MP said the chief minister had repeatedly instructed leaders not to cross the line of decency in political attacks against the BJP and its leadership in campaign.

“Didi said the BJP would stoop to lows we cannot match and make it a very dirty campaign, which the people of Bengal are unlikely to accept. She said we must steer clear of trying to return fire by way of discourtesy and incivility. That, she said, would make a big difference,” he said.

Although there were expectations, said a senior minister, of Mamata talking about defections and her zero-tolerance for sabotage, there was no such element in her directions.

“The CM was entirely focused on how the BJP must be fought back and defeated, inch by inch, starting Monday. There cannot and will not be any compromise, she said…. While the national issues and perspectives would feature

prominently, local issues must not be relegated to the sidelines, she said,” said the minister.

Rajib quits Trinamul

Domjur MLA Rajib Banerjee, who had quit the cabinet last week, on Friday resigned as MLA and then from Trinamul.

He might join the BJP in the presence of Amit Shah on Sunday.

Along with him, at least three other Howrah MLAs, including a former minister, a Hooghly MLA, an MLA and MP from South 24-Parganas, are also likely to switch sides.

Since the defection of former minister Suvendu Adhikari, the BJP has been trying to engineer en masse defections from the ruling party.

Trinamul has been insisting that those desertions will not hurt the party electorally.