Trinamul Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee will spearhead another mass outreach programme after the festive season to prepare the party for the general election next year.

“This will essentially be Nabo Jowar 2.0. The name of the drive and its goal will be finalised soon and announced properly. The main motive of the drive is to connect with the masses properly before the general election. The programme will be spearheaded by our national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee,” said a senior Trinamul leader.

The Diamond Harbour MP had led the Trinamuley Nabo Jowar (New Wave in Trinamul) before the panchayat elections this year.

Sources in Trinamul said the preliminary outline of the coming drive was ready and needed to be approved in a meeting with party chief Mamata Banerjee after she returns on September 23 from her Spain-UAE tour.

A source in the ruling party said the nature of the exercise would be like the Trinamuley Nabo Jowar, but other types of events were lined up to specifically sharpen the attack against the Narendra Modi government at the Centre.

The new edition of the mega drive will be based on the issues related to the general election. The strategy
for the party will be tailored according to local issues and the political situation of each of 42 Lok Sabha seats in
Bengal.

“The programmes and strategy would be very different in Alipurduar and Purulia. During the rural polls, the party only touched villages. All urban areas will be covered by the coming mass-contact programme,” said a leader.

“The plan is Bengal-specific. In case the INDIA alliance materialises properly, Trinamul could ask willing allies to launch a joint campaign everywhere,” he added.

Trinamul’s first mega outreach programme was launched through the Didi Ke Bolo (Tell Didi) dial-for-distress campaign envisaged by poll consultant Prashant Kishor in 2019. Didir Suraksha Kavach (Didi’s Talisman)
was also launched in January this year, for party leaders to reach electors on their doorsteps.

A source in Trinamul said the party thought the Nabo Jowar drive helped in gaining massive victories in critical zones like north Bengal and the Jungle Mahal in the rural polls.

In Nabo Jowar, Abhishek travelled across Bengal and held over 250 public meetings in two months. It had two parts, the Jano Sanjog Yatra (mass-connect march) where the Diamond Harbour MP connected with the people through public meetings, and the Gram Banglar Motamot (opinion of rural Bengal) in which he conducted meetings with Trinamul representatives down to the booth level and they voted to select names of the candidates.

Abhishek had travelled over 3,500km in a little over two months.

Samik Bhattacharya, the chief spokesperson for the BJP’s Bengal unit, said: “Trinamul should remember that a low tide inevitably comes after a high tide. Trinamul had to manipulate the panchayat polls by using even block development officers, and they would not get the same opportunity next year. The count of seats won by the BJP in 2024 will begin from 25.”