Mamata expresses gratitude to 'Maa-Mati-Manush'

Kolkata: On the Foundation Day of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), party's chairperson Mamata Banerjee expressed her gratitude to 'Maa-Mati-Manush' and her party workers.

"On #TMCFoundationDay, I extend my sincere gratitude to our Maa-Mati-Manush and all our workers who continue to fight with us in making Bengal better and stronger each day. The Trinamool family will carry on with this resolve for times to come!" she tweeted.

"As Trinamool turns 23 today, I look back at the journey we began on January 1st, 1998. Our years have been of immense struggle, but throughout this time we have continued to achieve our objective of being committed to the cause of only the people," she tweeted.

Meanwhile, the party's leaders and workers pledged to fight against the canard and lies spread by the BJP.

The Trinamool flag was hoisted at every party office up to the block level. It was hoisted at Trinamool Bhavan, where leaders including Subrata Bakshi, state president, Derek O' Brien and Santanu Sen, party's MP along with other supporters and well-wishers were present. On January 1, 1998, Mamata Banerjee, the former president of Chhatra Parishad, floated her own party — Trinamool Congress — to fight against the misrule of the CPI(M). She was driven out of the Congress after she protested against the soft stand of the party to please the CPI(M).

In the past 23 years, the Trinamool Congress had organised sustained movements to uphold the cause of the common people. Banerjee led movements against the CPI(M) in Nandigram where the state government had tried to set up a chemical hub by forcibly acquiring farmlands while in Singur it tried to acquire plots to set up an automobile factory by the Tatas. These two movements finally led to the end of 34 years of CPI(M) misrule. Before that, in 2008 Panchayat elections, the TMC did well and got the control over Zilla Parishad of East Midnapore and South 24-Parganas.

In 2009, the Trinamool got 19 Lok Sabha seats followed by winning the civic elections in 2010. In 2011, it finally won the Assembly elections.

After coming to power, Banerjee launched several welfare schemes including Khadyashree, Kanyashree, Sabuj Sathi and Rupashree, giving the much-needed relief to the masses.

Political analysts opined that the Trinamool Congress would have to face a tough time before the 2021 Assembly election as "it will face BJP which has money, power and will go out of its way to capture Bengal by spreading lies, canard and trying to woo Trinamool leaders by paying them hefty amounts."

Partha Chatterjee, the party's secretary general, said to counter "the lies and half-truths, which the BJP is circulating regularly on social media, Trinamool Congress is holding press conferences every day to refute the false claims."

The party MPs have already approached the President requesting him to withdraw the Governor who is "working as an agent of the BJP and has failed to protect, uphold and preserve the Constitution."

Duare Sarkar, a unique initiative taken up by Mamata Banerjee, has earned an overwhelming response and so far more than 1.5 crore people have visited the camps. The third phase will start on January 2, he said.

Chatterjee said organisational meetings were being held regularly to take stock of the situation.