Following TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee’s instructions, a peaceful re-election related to the party’s secret ballot initiative — for choosing the candidates of Panchayat polls – was held in the Gosanimari area of Sitai constituency.
The re-election took place on Wednesday afternoon at 1 pm. Following Banerjee’s instructions, Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia, the MLA of Sitai constituency, was present throughout the election. The MLA himself distributed the ballot papers to everyone.
On April 25, Abhishek had launched Trinamool Congress’s new campaign ‘Trinamool-e Nabo Jowar’ in Cooch Behar. The TMC candidates for the upcoming Panchayat elections were to be selected through the election process during ‘Jana Sanjog Yatra’ and ‘Gram Banglar Motamot’ drives. However, the election process ran into rough seas in Sahebganj of Dinhata and Gosanimari of Sitai constituency. The ballot box was damaged by over enthusiastic crowd resulting in ballot papers getting damaged. On Tuesday, Abhishek gave instructions for re-election from a public meeting at Sitalkuchi Vidhan Sabha.
Wednesday painted a different picture altogether. Re-election process began at 1 pm in Gossanimari. However, no election was held in Sahebganj on that day. Salima Khatoon and Dipankar Dutta, two voters who had come to vote, said: “We have peacefully cast our votes today. There was some unrest yesterday regarding the ballot papers but today the voting was conducted peacefully and properly.”
MLA Jagadish Chandra Barma Basuniya said: “There was a slight delay, but today’s voting was conducted peacefully. The villagers stood in a queue in an orderly manner and cast their votes.” On Wednesday, Abhishek addressed a public meeting at Cooch Behar Dakshin and reiterated the party’s commitment to ensuring a people’s panchayat. He said: “If somebody thinks that they can use muscle power to extend favours to certain candidates, they are living in a fool’s paradise. We have made efforts to ensure that the people decide the candidates for a people’s panchayat and not other stakeholders.” Amid thundering applause, he emphasised upon the importance of a democratic process for the upcoming Panchayat elections.
Banerjee continued to interact with the masses in Cooch Behar. He garlanded the statue of Rai Saheb Thakur Panchanan Barma at Poachagar More after coming out of Mathabhanga College. After addressing a public meeting at Ghughumari Homeopathy College Ground of Cooch Behar South constituency, Abhishek travelled to Cooch Behar number 2 block in a convoy.
On the way to the football field of KakriBari, where another public meeting was scheduled, he got down from his vehicle at the rail crossing and in the streets of the Ganjbari area, where he greeted and talked with people.
There were thousands who had gathered to catch a glimpse of the leader. Many people took selfies with Abhishek Banerjee. He also interacted with children in the area.
After finishing the public meeting at Kakrabari field, he went straight to Chilakhana Union Club football field of Natabari constituency to hold another public meeting.
From there, he went to Haripur in Tufanganj to meet the renowned researcher Dharmendra Narayan Barma who received the Presidential Award. He spoke with family members before leaving for the SSA Ground of Tufanganj.