Mamata to take part in ceremony for thanking people at Kharagpur
Kolkata: Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee will take part in a thanksgiving ceremony at Kharagpur Sadar on December 9.
Trinamool Congress candidate Pradip Sarkar has defeated Prem Chand Jha of BJP in the recently held by-election at Kharagpur by over 20,000 votes. This is the first time that Trinamool has got control over the Assembly seat since the inception of the party 22 years ago. Sarkar came to the Assembly on Monday and Banerjee advised him to work sincerely for the people.
It may be recalled that the Trinamool supremo had said on November 28 after the results of the by-election that she would visit Kharagpur, Karimpur and Kaliaganj, where her party nominees have defeated the BJP candidates handsomely. Talking to newsmen on Monday in the Assembly, Banerjee said she would go to Kharagpur Sadar for the thanksgiving ceremony on December 9 on her way to Digha, where a two-day business meet would be held on December 11 and 12.
This is the first time that Banerjee is taking part in a programme to thank the people for voting for the Trinamool candidate.
It has been learnt that Trinamool would also take out a victory rally at Karimpur on December 14, where Bimalendu Singharoy has defeated BJP candidate Joy Prakash Mazumdar by over 23,000 votes. Meanwhile, Trinamool nominee Tapan Debsinha has defeated BJP candidate Kamal Sarkar by 2,414 votes in Kaliaganj.
BJP state president Dilip Ghosh had won the Kharagpur Sadar seat in 2016 by defeating Gyan Singh Sohanpal of Congress by 4,500 votes. After winning 18 seats in the Lok Sabha polls in 2019, the party's arrogance became sky-high and all Central leaders came to Kharagpur to campaign for the party nominee.
BJP leaders had earlier claimed that the saffron party would win in all the three seats where by-election was held recently.
The morale of Trinamool Congress had dipped to an all-time low after the Lok Sabha election and Mamata Banerjee subsequently took it upon herself to boost up party leaders and workers.
The Didi ke Bolo scheme was introduced where the party leaders and workers were asked to build intense contact with the people. State Transport minister Suvendu Adhikari was asked to look after the Kaliaganj and Karimpur Assembly seats.
The scheme has since yielded desired results, which is evident from the fact that Trinamool has won the Kaliaganj seat for the first time as well, similar to Kharagpur Sadar.
Trinamool leaders feel that Banerjee's participation in the thanksgiving ceremony will further boost up the party's rank and file.
The results have shown that Mamata Banerjee has no substitute in Bengal at the moment and the people still rely on the development projects taken up by her.
