Scores of people across Bengal express their gratitude to TMC chief for the developmental work done

Kolkata: With the usual mammoth rally of Trinamool Congress on Martyrs' Day at Esplanade not taking place this time due to COVID-19, lakhs of people expressed their gratitude to the party supremo Mamata Banerjee for ensuring an overall development of Bengal by flooding social media with photographs and videos of previous years.

In the all previous years, lakhs of Trinamool Congress supporters from across the state used to come to the city. They were put up in different places like Milan Mela ground, Rajdanga Stadium, Netaji Indoor Stadium and Kshudiram Anushilan Kendra.

From early morning they used to march from Sealdah and Howrah stations to converge at Esplanade to make the rally a grand success.

Trinamool Congress supporters carrying colourful motif of the party flag were seen along with people selling photographs of party supremo Mamata Banerjee on this day in all the previous years.

This year the same is missing as the party decided to hold a virtual rally giving priority to the safety of people in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic. Usually traffic had to be diverted through alternate thoroughfares on this day. But this year there was normal flow of traffic on both Jawaharlal Nehru Road and Bentinck Street as in the wake of COVID-19 only a makeshift Martyrs' column was set up infront of Victoria House where senior Trinamool Congress leaders including the party's state president Subrata Bakshi, secretary general Partha Chatterjee, Firhad Hakim and Aroop Biswas paid their respect.

Since morning netizens have, however, uploaded thousands of photographs and videos in different social media platforms of the previous years showing lakhs of people listening to the speech of the party supremo.

Crores of people from all walks of life remained glued to giant screens installed almost at every block in the state watching Banerjee's virtual address on Martyrs' Day. Since morning party workers were present at booth offices maintaining physical distancing. Even migrant workers and cyclone Amphan affected people expressed their gratitude to the Mamata Banerjee's government by attending the programmes in their respective areas.

Hoisting of party flags took place at all party offices across the state following physical distancing norms.