TMC launches 2 key drives; to push for implementation of Aparajita Bill

Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress (TMC), on Monday, launched two key initiatives, one aimed at educating its younger leaders about the party’s history and another involving the women’s wing organising rallies across districts and blocks to push for the implementation of the Aparajita Bill.

In September this year, the Mamata Banerjee-led government introduced and passed the Aparajita Women and Child (West Bengal Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, 2024 proposing the death penalty for rape convicts while also introducing death as an alternative punishment for all categories of rape in the state-specific penal code.

The decision was taken in the party’s national working committee meeting at Kalighat on Monday. After the meeting, senior TMC leader Chandrima Bhattacharya said that the women wing leaders will hold rallies in each district on November 30 and December 1 demanding the immediate implementation of the Aparajita Women and Child (West Bengal Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, 2024.

Moreover, a 15-member delegation of TMC MPs and MLAs will seek time from President Droupadi Murmu after December 10 on this issue, Bhattacharya informed.

Incidentally, after passing the Bill, it was sent to the Bengal Governor and eventually to the President of India.

The TMC on Monday has also decided to launch a campaign christened ‘With the People, For the People’, aimed at building stronger engagement with the masses.

“A new campaign will be launched to educate people about the party’s history and its contributions to the state’s political landscape, with party workers actively spreading this message across districts,” Bhattacharya told media.

She further added: “There are many youths who are not aware of the party’s history and struggle. So, the party has decided to take up an initiative to make people aware of the party’s history and its contributions,” she said.

Political observers, meanwhile, pointed out that the ruling Trinamool Congress has come up with these programmes which will help the party to reach out to the people at the grassroots level.

This has been a strategic move by the Trinamool Congress ahead of Assembly elections in 2026.