Trinamul Congress’s legal cell on Thursday released a vision document and its panel for elections to the executive committee of the Calcutta High Court Bar Association.

The move is in an indication of the party’s keenness to have a greater say in the lawyer fraternity in the high court, which sources in Trinamul attributed to instructions from “the very top”.

The association, an apolitical lawyers’ body in the high court with around 7,000 members, is likely to conduct its biennial elections to the 15-member executive committee over a month from next week. Trinamul does not want to leave room for a 2019-like situation, in which the BJP made unprecedented gains in the body that had been traditionally a Congress fief for decades.

“Voting for others would mean a waste of votes, so we are appealing for our candidates’ victory,” said Trinamul MP and spokesperson Sukhendu Sekhar Roy.

Roy, a former vice-president of the association, said the body had forever been instrumental in the acceleration of the justice-rendering system in the high court, and in trying to ease difficulties of litigants, besides taking in consideration the difficulties faced by practicing lawyers.

“We are also trying to give youth a chance, as is evident from our panel,” he added.

The Trinamul vision document promises a “brighter future” for the association, with a seven-fold agenda – digitalisation of the association, academic engagement, infrastructure improvement, additional facilities such as air-conditioners for conference rooms and ATMs, financial support for junior advocates, prioritisation of health and hygiene and welfare of members.

The last time the elections took place, a BJP-backed panel emerged victorious in the association, with Ashok Kumar Dhandhania as president and Dhiraj Trivedi as secretary. The Congress panel’s candidate Ritzu Ghosal won the post of assistant secretary, Trinamul panel’s Dwarikanath Mukhopadhyay became the treasurer. The BJP-backed panel secured eight of the 15 posts.

Trinamul’s Roy attributed the results of the committee’s 2019 election to the context of the BJP’s stunning gains in the Lok Sabha polls in Bengal.

“But like in every other key section of society, there has been disillusionment with the BJP among the legal fraternity as well. So, the results this time ought to be quite different,” he said.

A Trinamul insider said on the condition of anonymity that the party’s top-tier leadership was taking keen interest in the association election this time. “Whichever panel gets two out of the three key posts of president, secretary and treasurer controls the association. This time, we have encouragement from the very top to leave no stone unturned to ensure the BJP’s decimation,” he said.