There may be by no means a lull within the tough and tumble of West Bengal politics and this 12 months has already seen civic physique elections, arrests of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders in circumstances of alleged corruption, and the BJP’s makes an attempt to place its home so as earlier than the frenzy in direction of the election season in 2024.
However, earlier than the all-important normal elections, the political events should face a vital check subsequent February through the panchayat elections. And all the main events are preparing for the preliminary contest.
The ladies’s wing of the TMC began its “Chalo grame jai (Let’s go to villages)” programme to achieve out to villagers from November 1 and it will proceed until November 12. The occasion plans to organise panchayat conferences in each district and sales space that shall be attended by the highest management of the Trinamool Mahila Congress. Beginning Tuesday, the TMC ladies’s wing has been organising processions, gram sabhas, conferences at avenue corners, and door-to-door outreach to seek out out if ladies in distant villages are receiving the advantages of the Mamata Banerjee-led authorities’s welfare schemes. The ladies’s brigade will then put together booth-wise experiences and submit them to the occasion management by November 25.
The preliminary response was promising, stated TMC state president and state minister Chandrima Bhattacharya. “This marketing campaign will proceed for the subsequent two months. We bought an enormous response on the primary day. The CPI(M), the Congress and the BJP are conspiring to defame the Trinamool authorities. However, that won’t achieve success,” she stated.
The ruling occasion has been on the again foot the previous few months over the college jobs rip-off and investigations into a number of of its leaders, together with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee. It’s eager on sustaining its grip on rural Bengal earlier than the Lok Sabha elections and, in response to insiders, the management needs to keep away from a repeat of the political violence that broke out within the aftermath of the Meeting polls final 12 months. There had been widescale violence within the panchayat polls in 2018 too and the BJP went on to submit its best-ever lead to parliamentary elections in Bengal the next 12 months.
Opposition events such because the BJP and the CPI(M) have additionally began gearing up for the agricultural civic elections. The Congress, which doesn’t have as broad a statewide organisational community because the others, has not introduced any programme but. Its state president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, nevertheless, is concentrating his efforts on the occasion’s conventional stronghold Murshidabad.
The BJP, occasion insiders stated, was making ready the blueprint for its panchayat marketing campaign whose most important plank could be the occasion’s anti-corruption message. The occasion is planning to achieve out to voters beginning this month. Sources within the occasion stated the BJP central management had directed the state unit to organize an inventory of corruption allegations towards the gram panchayats the Trinamool controls and deploy location-specific messaging. If required, issue-based conferences and processions must be held, the BJP excessive command is learnt to have informed its state leaders.
Stated a BJP chief, “The BJP can use many different points, apart from native points, within the panchayat combat. For instance, allegations of corruption within the work of MGNREGS. Complaints of corruption in central schemes and recruitment corruption. Villagers too are trying to find alternate options. We wish to set up ourselves as a reputable Opposition within the subsequent couple of months.”
The CPI(M), in the meantime, has introduced a statewide “Gram Jagao, Bangla Bachao (Awaken villages, save Bengal)” programme that shall be held this month. The occasion has additionally finalised the slogans its leaders and employees will use to assault the ruling occasion.
A senior CPI(M) chief stated, “Since Diwali, we have now been attempting to hurry in direction of the panchayat elections. We are going to contact each sales space in panchayat areas to strengthen our booth-level organisation. Sales space-based groups are additionally being created for that. These groups shall be led by younger leaders akin to DYFI state secretary Meenakshi Mukherjee, Dispita Dhar, and others. We all know that within the panchayat elections we won’t be within the driver’s seat. Now, the first Opposition occasion within the state is BJP. We wish to regain that place in order that we put up a superb efficiency within the Lok Sabha elections.”