kolkata: Reiterating that the only criterion for candidature in the forthcoming Panchayat elections would be a 'transparent and clean image' of the leaders, Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday reportedly asked party leaders from districts to submit a report on the party's workings from the district to the booth-level once in two weeks. The district committees of the party have been asked to prepare such reports.
Banerjee also reiterated that under no circumstance the party would tolerate any highhandedness by any leader and the voters should not be prevented from exercising their franchise. "Even if we lose one or two seats, we cannot stop them from casting votes," Banerjee told the leaders.
He told this to the party men after meeting the leaders from East Midnapore in his Camac Street office on Tuesday. On Monday, Banerjee had met leaders from West Midnapore and Jhargram. Banerjee had been meeting district leaders since August 1. He had talked to the leaders of North Bengal. He will be visiting North Bengal in the second week of September. Banerjee urged the leaders to go to the people and strengthen the party organisation in East Midnapore. "You should go to every household and ensure whether the people have got the benefits of various schemes or not. Also, make them aware of the schemes. If they find any difficulty in getting them, try to overcome the difficulty," he reportedly told the leaders. East Midnapore is believed to be the stronghold of Suvendu Adhikari and his family. There was a time when the Adhikari family used to run the district. Sisir Adhikari was the MP along with his son Dibyendu. Soumendu, another son of Sisir Adhikari, was the chairman of Contai Municipality and his wife was a councillor. Suvendu was the state Transport minister. Suvendu defeated Mamata Banerjee in the Nandigram Assembly seat in 2021.
Over the past year, the BJP had been fast losing ground in the district. In the cooperative election held in Nandigram recently, the BJP had failed to bag even a single seat. In 2018, there had been allegations that some TMC leaders had prevented voters from casting their votes. "Trinamool does not want to take any risk as its main target is the 2024 Lok Sabha election where it will fight to bag as many seats as possible," political experts said.
Soumen Mahapatra, TMC president of East Midnapore said all the leaders would work together to strengthen the party base in the district. Firoza Biwi said Banerjee had urged the party's rank and file not to misbehave with anyone.