Poll consultant Prashant Kishor purportedly told the Trinamul Congress’s city leaders on Friday that coming polls to the Calcutta Municipal Corporation would be “completely free and fair” and they should ensure victories through “hard work and popularity”.

Trinamul’s secretary-general Partha Chatterjee, all-India general-secretary Subrata Bakshi and youth chief Abhishek Banerjee were present at a meeting Kishor had on Friday with 124 party councillors at the CMC and MLAs of 11 city constituencies.

Sources among those who attended the closed-door meeting said Kishor made it clear that Trinamul wouldn’t go down the path of the civic polls of 2015 or panchayat elections of 2018 in which the party was accused of using government machinery and muscle power to ensure the rivals’ defeat.

“Do not think your victories would be ensured with police assistance. The civic polls would be completely free and fair. You have to ensure your win with your popularity and work,” a source quoted the poll consultant as saying.

“Set your election deadline to February 15 and not May. Set your goals and schedules accordingly,” Kishor was quoted to have said at the meet.

A senior Trinamul leader said Kishor and his team had been relentlessly gathering feedback regarding what the people were upset with. “Excesses during the polls handled by the state election panel featured at the top of the complaints. That is what Kishor seems to be trying to guard against, ahead of the Assembly elections next year,” said the leader.

In the general election last year, the BJP led in 51 of the CMC’s 144 wards.

Kishor, said multiple sources who spoke to this correspondent individually, underscored the need for “simple lifestyle” by those in public life and cited Mamata Banerjee’s example. “He has said the people do not like the ostentatious lifestyle that many Trinamul leaders led till the Lok Sabha poll debacle and they should have always followed Didi’s example. He said we must all lead simple life in public,” said a councillor.

Kishor said his team was already done with a survey to pick “winnable” candidates for the CMC polls and the party’s decision would be based on it. “There would be no tolerance for bickering, recommendations and sabotage over candidature. The party must be placed before self in the fight to keep the BJP out,” Kishor was quoted as saying.