Mamata Banerjee held a meeting with members of various communities based in the hills and the plains of north Bengal, while her nephew Abhishek met around 3,500 Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) leaders in Calcutta on Tuesday to brief them on a new campaign module of the Trinamul Congress.

The twin moves by Trinamul's top two make it clear that the ruling dispensation will exploit the identity politics in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls to counter the BJP's politics of polarisation.

Mamata met representatives of around a dozen communities based in the hills and the plains at Dinabandhu Mancha in Siliguri town, briefly after she reached there on Tuesday afternoon.

Representatives of the communities like Rajbanshi, Gorkha, Namasudra and Jains took part in the meeting, along with members of various development boards she set up for Lepchas, Bhutias, Thamis and Mangars.

“We always believe in walking together. In Bengal, no religion is neglected. I wanted to meet all of you and make it clear that in our state, there is no difference among the communities. We all have to stay together to strengthen the social fabric,” Mamata said in the meeting.

A source in Trinamul said the party this time was set to concentrate on different religious groups, communities and castes across Bengal to counter the saffron camp's polarisation module by holding several small meetings and rallies in particular pockets.

In the 2021 Assembly polls, Trinamul, under the mentorship of poll consultant Prashant Kishor, concentrated on identity politics and reached out to particular communities separately. A section of Trinamul leaders believe such moves helped the party win at least 50 Assembly seats in 2021 polls in BJP strongholds like north Bengal and Jungle Mahal.

"Mamata's meeting with the different communities in Siliguri and Abhishek's meeting with SC and ST leaders in Calcutta is part of the party's larger plan to focus on identity concerns," said a Trinamul leader in Calcutta.

The people of SC and ST communities are determining factors in election results of at least 68 and 14 Assembly seats, respectively, while they have an impact in at least 11 Lok Sabha seats, in both south and north Bengal.

In the new campaign module — Tapashilir Sanglap — that was launched at Nazrul Mancha in Calcutta by Abhishek Banerjee, around 3,500 party leaders from SC and ST communities will hold 25,000 small meetings in different SC and ST-dominated areas. The leaders would travel in decorated vehicles and try to interact with the representatives of the communities.

"The party's target is to reach out to 1.5 crore voters belonging to the SC and ST communities to send a message that how the BJP had been torturing their counterpart in their states, while Trinamul had taken up multiple welfare schemes for them," said a source close to Abhishek.