The Trinamul Congress is working to bring a large number of people from BJP-dominated pockets in northern and western Bengal to its annual July 21 rally in Calcutta with an eye on next year’s panchayat polls and the bigger battle of 2024 when the Lok Sabha elections are scheduled.

The July 21 rally will be held in person after a two-year Covid-induced break during which the event had shifted online with chief minister Mamata Banerjee delivering a virtual address.

Trinamul sources said the decision to concentrate on the BJP pockets was part of a drive to further corner Bengal’s main Opposition party that has witnessed one setback after another in the state since its below-par performance in the Assembly polls.

“As a political party, the move is clear — to strengthen its control in weaker zones while keeping its strongholds intact,” Trinamul national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy said on Sunday.

Another senior Trinamul leader said that although the BJP’s march in Bengal had been arrested after the saffron party had tasted unprecedented success in the state by winning 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in 2019, its influence must not be taken lightly in several districts such as Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, Purulia and Bankura. “The BJP won most of its seats in these places in 2021,” the leader said.

“The leaders who have joined our party from the BJP have been assigned the task of bringing to the July 21 rally more people from places where the BJP is still powerful,” he added.

The Trinamul sources said that like other years, Mamata is expected to set the tone of her political forays from the Martyrs’ Day rally stage and tell party workers how they need to prepare for the panchayat polls next year and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Trinamul leaders in the BJP strongholds have been asked to conduct small-scale meetings and social media campaigns urging people to come to Calcutta on July 21 to attend the rally. In several districts, Trinamul leaders are preparing lists of people from each village who will attend the rally.

“People in many places who had earlier supported the BJP are contacting us,” said Soumen Belthoria, the Purulia district president of Trinamul. The BJP has won six of Purulia’s nine Assembly seats last year.

“The July 21 Martyrs’ Day rally this time has been planned to send out a message for the upcoming panchayat polls, with an eagle’s eye on 2024,” said Trinamul spokesperson Kunal Ghosh.

The Trinamul sources said that apart from the BJP-dominated pockets, leaders across Bengal had been asked to bring more people from rural areas keeping the panchayat polls in mind.

“The party is very serious about the panchayat polls as it will be the final litmus test for us before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. We should not forget that the allegations of malpractice swirling around the 2018 panchayat polls were one of the reasons for our poor performance in the Lok Sabha polls the next year,” a senior Trinamul leader in Calcutta said.