Trinamul leaders in Purulia and Bankura are busy drawing up lists of inactive party functionaries that they will place before chief minister Mamata Banerjee when she visits these districts early next week.

Mamata will visit Purulia and Bankura between May 30 and June 1, during which she will hold administrative and political meetings separately for the two districts.

These two districts in south Bengal are a cause of concern for the ruling party as the BJP has considerable organisational presence there, reflected in the Assembly poll results where the saffron camp bagged 14 out of 21 seats in the two districts. Senior Trinamul leaders had attributed the party’s poor show in this region — despite the party’s overall victory in Bengal — to inaction and sabotage by many party functionaries.

“We are preparing a list of panchayat-wise non-performers who are responsible for poor show in the Assembly polls. We will place the list before Didi and wait for her directive. We need to overhaul our organisation at the grassroots before panchayat polls (in 2023),” said Soumen Belthoria, the Purulia Trinamul president.

Alok Mukherjee, president of Bankura’s Bishnupur organisational district, echoed his Purulia counterpart. “We have found out the people responsible for the poor performance in last year’s Assembly polls. A complete report including lists of inactive faces has been prepared. We will hand over a sealed envelope with the lists to Didi,” said Mukherjee.

Both these districts are politically significant for Trinamul as the BJP's rise in Bengal started from these pockets in the 2018 panchayat polls. Twenty-four gram panchayats in Purulia and 10 in Bankura are run by the BJP. The saffron party also controls the Raghunathpur-II panchayat samiti in Purulia.

Mamata said in preparatory meetings of panchayat polls on May 5 that the party will reward performers and punish slackers. She had also sent out a clear message from a meeting in West Midnapore on May 18 that she would not even take a minute to clip the wings of those not working for the party “actively”.

“You have to work for the people. We have to change our approach from ‘me’ to ‘us’. Only this can help us conquer India,” she had said.