The Trinamul Congress will launch a Sanyog Yatra (outreach march) — an extensive drive to reach out to people at the grassroots — from next week for two months across Bengal, chief minister and party supremo Mamata Banerjee said on Wednesday.
The drive, planned with a multi-pronged strategy to galvanise the party’s support base ahead of rural polls, will be launched by party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee from Cooch Behar, the farthest district from the state capital, on April 25.
“Our party has decided to go against the BJP. I have given the responsibility to Abhishek to hold Sanyog Yatra across the state. Our party leaders will interact with people through small rallies and will continue the exercise for the next two months. They will listen to peoples’ suggestions, problems and take their feedback,” Mamata said at a news meet at Nabanna.
The outreach drive follows Didir Suraksha Kavach (Didi’s talisman), in which Trinamul leaders reached out to people in gram panchayats as Didir Doot (Didi’s emissary) to tell them about the state government’s social welfare schemes.
During the latest drive, Abhishek will march in the gram panchayats and interact with local party leaders, workers and people in general to discuss various issues.
“He will reach the grassroots and there are indications that he will spend nights in villages. We consider it a historical exercise that will boost our party supporters ahead of elections. Our party workers are eagerly waiting for him,” said Udayan Guha, the north Bengal development minister who hails from Cooch Behar.
Sources said Abhishek will take a chopper to reach Cooch Behar on April 24 and go to Dinhata the same day to launch the drive the next day.
“He (Abhishek) will reveal details of the campaign in Calcutta on Thursday, but as far we know, he will stay in Cooch Behar for three days and then go to Alipurduar,” said a party leader.
These two districts were known as BJP strongholds since 2019 Lok Sabha polls. But during last year’s civic polls, Trinamul secured the civic bodies of these districts.
In the course of the yatra, Abhishek and his party colleagues will ask people about the extent of social welfare schemes implemented in the rural areas and also listen to local problems.
“They will also take feedback about elected representatives of the party serving in different tiers of the panchayat. Such information will help the party to select candidates for the ensuing rural polls, especially when allegations of corruption have been raised against a section of representatives in various districts of the state,” said a source.
The reports of the yatra will be sent to Mamata, who in turn, will take the initiative to include more people in the social welfare schemes.
“We are conducting Duare Sarkar (from the state’s side). They would report the findings on the ground and I would take appropriate steps,” said Mamata.
The launch of the drive from Dinhata is significant, said political observers. This is because, at the 2021 Assembly elections, Trinamul had lost the Dinhata seat to the BJP by around 500 votes, but regained the seat in the bypoll by a record margin. “It also hints that Trinamul is all set to start its groundwork for next year’s Lok Sabha elections,” said an observer.
“Out of the 77 Assembly seats which BJP won in 2021, the margin was around 500 votes in two seats. The BJP had won another nine seats with a margin of less than 2,000 votes. It won another 13 Assembly seats where the margin was between 2,000 to 5,000 votes. It is evident that Trinamul will focus on these areas,” the observer added.
