Chief minister Mamata Banerjee is scheduled to reach East Midnapore district on Tuesday when the BJP is slated to hold a march to the state secretariat against alleged corruption in the Trinamul Congress regime.

In the past also, Mamata had been away from Calcutta on days of prior-announced, large-scale political programmes of the Opposition. On Tuesday (September 13), Mamata will start her three-day trip to East Midnapore and West Midnapore.

Sources said the chief minister would reach Kharagpur of West Midnapore by Tuesday afternoon and meet Trinamul workers in the evening to discuss organisational issues and further course of action before next year’s panchayat polls.“Didi (Mamata) would start from Kharagpur on Tuesday, then, she will come back on Thursday to attend a job fair,” said Trinamul’s West Midnapore coordinator Ajit Maiti.

On September 14, Mamata is likely to chair an administrative review meeting of the two districts in Tamluk (East Midnapore), and another meeting with zilla parishad members of East Midnapore.

The chief minister would hand over appointment letters to skilled youths at the job fair at Kharagpur on September 15, before departing for Calcutta. At a meeting of Trinamul leaders and workers at the Netaji Indoor Stadium here on Thursday, Mamata had hinted that she would visit the two districts soon.

“I will visit West Midnapore and Tamluk (East Midnapore) shortly. Will let you know the dates within two or three days,” she had said. Although there is no scheduled political rally during her visit, Trinamul leaders confirmed she would sit with the leaders of Jhargram, East Midnapore and West Midnapore separately during the trip.

Trinamul sources have said Mamata’s visit to the zone and the timing are significant, as the three districts have been a bit of a stronghold of BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, from his time in her party. A source in Trinamul has said Mamata has certainly had a plan to visit the zone while BJP leaders would be busy in Calcutta with their march to Nabanna.

“There are few instances of friction over new appointments of block Trinamul leaders in districts, which she has said she wants to handle personally. A day after the BJP’s march, she is likely to mount a scathing offensive on Adhikari and the BJP over a bunch of issues,” said a source in Trinamul. According to the plan, Trinamul leaders from the three districts have been asked to reach Kharagpur on Tuesday.

On Thursday, Mamata expressed her willingness to personally handle the problems arising out of new organisational appointments in the districts.

“We have already reshuffled our leadership in many districts, and there are a few places where some problems have been reported. I told my party colleagues that I would personally resolve the problems caused by the change in leadership at those places,” she had said at the Netaji Indoor Stadium. The BJP has plans to choke Calcutta and Howrah on Tuesday in its show of strength. On Friday, it appointed Mangal Pandey, its former health minister in Bihar, as the party’s in-charge for Bengal — a move that indicates the saffron camp’s attempts to strengthen its Bengal organisation ahead of the march to Nabanna. Amit Malviya and Asha Lakra would be working as his co-in-charge.

(Additional reporting by Anshuman Phadikar)