Mamata sounds poll bugle, asks party workers gear up for '18 panchayat battle

After a landslide victory in the recently concluded municipal elections in the plains and making substantial gains in the hills, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee has asked party leaders to gear up for the upcoming Panchayat elections scheduled to be held next year by organizing extensive cultural and political conferences up to the block level.

Banerjee thanked the people for their unflinching support to the party which was reflected in the results of the municipal polls. "We are committed to the people and we will continue to work for Ma, Mati and Manush," she maintained.

At the core committee meeting of Trinamool Congress held at the party office, Banerjee announced the programs for the next two months. Before the Panchayat election the party will undertake special drives to build improve contact with the people. The contact programs would include blood donation camps and several political conferences.

To tide over the acute scarcity of blood in the blood banks due to the summers, Trinamool Congress will hold blood donation camps along with the police and will collectively collect 50,000 units of blood from May 27 to June 10. Of the total units, Trinamool will collect 30,000 units while the police will collect another 20,000 units. The blood donation camps will be held during the evenings. Social and cultural events will be held throughout the state between May 27 to June 27 . This will be followed by political conferences from June 28 to July 27.

Banerjee urged party leaders to use social media to counter the canards spread by BJP to malign the party. She made it very clear that the BJP is trying to put the leaders of opposition parties including herself behind the bars and asked the people to not be worried. "They are planning to put everyone belonging to opposition parties behind the bars including me. But do not get scared and continue to work seriously," she said. Banerjee apprehended that the Modi government was trying to advance the Lok Sabha election and hold it in 2018 along with Assembly election. "Though I do not believe this to be true but everybody should pull up their socks and let go of sleep," she said.

Commenting on the Congress she said, "Congress is no longer a force in Bengal." The TMC supremo made it clear that only she would talk on the minorities and reprimanded the party's MP Idris Ali for making "statements on the minorities." She also cautioned Dola Sen, Tapan Das Gupta and Pulak Roy, and expressed displeasure over the functioning of the trade union front as despite her repeated requests the leaders had failed to bring different factions of the party under one umbrella.