TMC looks to connect with people of Bengal through 'Janasanyog Yatra'
Kolkata: Trinamool Congress will start building contacts with people throughout the state through its initiative named Janasanyog Yatra from June 21, party supremo Mamata Banerjee said on Friday.
She presided over a meeting held to analyse poll results in Hooghly at Trinamool Bhavan on Friday afternoon. She will hold similar meetings in Bijpur on June 14 and Nadia on June 21. Senior party leaders including Subrata Bakshi, Trinamool Youth Congress president Abhishek Banerjee, Firhad Hakim, the observer of Hooghly district Indranil Sen and Ashima Patra were present.
She will be present at the installation of the statue of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar at Vidyasagar College on June 11. The statue was vandalised by BJP supporters taking part in the rally of the party's national president Amit Shah in May. Following the event, she will take part in the inauguration of a luxury hotel by ITC on Eastern Metropolitan Bypass.
Banerjee said the Yatra will start from June 21 and will be held in Birbhum, Burdwan, Howrah and Hooghly, along with other South Bengal districts. It will also be held in Jangalmahal, Sunderbans and North Bengal. It will be continued till July 18. On July 21 Martyr's Day will be held and the Yatra will be resumed from July 25.
Rabindranath Ghosh, president of the Cooch Behar unit of the party, was replaced by Benoy Krishna Barman. Banerjee said as Barman was a minister without any portfolio, he would be able to devote more time to the party.
She met the Panchayat members, MLAs and party functionaries of Hooghly district. Though Trinamool Congress has retained Srirampur and Arambagh out of the three Lok Sabha seats in Hooghly, the margins of both the candidates, Kalyan Banerjee and Aparupa Podder, have drastically fallen.
Podder, who was elected from Arambagh by 1,818 votes, had won the seat by 3.46 lakh votes in 2014. Ratna Dey Nag, the party's two-time MP was defeated by Locket Chatterjee of BJP by over 70,000 votes. Dey Nag had won the seat by 1.89 lakh votes in 2014.
There was massive transfer of CPI(M) votes to BJP, which had helped the BJP candidates win in Arambagh and secure second position in Srirampur and Arambagh. There was transfer of votes by a section of Trinamool supporters as well.
It was decided on Friday that Mayor Firhad Hakim will hold three block-level meetings. Banerjee had asked all party leaders to go to the people and listen to their grievances. By holding meetings in each district, Banerjee is trying to understand what went wrong with the party as they failed to get votes in areas like Jangalmahal and North Bengal, where massive development has taken place.
