TMC mobilises booth-level cadre to counter SIR ‘threat’

Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) may oppose the proposed Special Intensive Revision (SIR) politically, but on the ground, it has deployed a strategy combining administrative outreach with grassroots mobilisation to fight what it calls a “design by the BJP and the Election Commission” (EC) to disenfranchise voters.

Drawing lessons from Bihar, where Opposition parties accused the EC of deleting names without proper verification during the SIR exercise, the ruling party in Bengal has activated its cadre down to the booth level.

In the past week, TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee has held meetings across seven organisational districts in North Bengal, comprising 44 Assembly segments, where TMC slipped from 24 Assembly seats in 2021 to the equivalent of 20 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, reviewing booth-level performance with granular data.

Banerjee has sent a clear and firm message to party leaders that no one will be allowed to hold any position in the party without proving their performance. In almost all the district-level meetings, Banerjee has been asking his party leaders to lay more emphasis on public coordination.

“Abhishek Banerjee has directed every district to use government schemes as a major campaign tool. In districts where the party fared poorly in the Lok Sabha polls, he asked leaders: if the government is delivering, why are we losing votes?” a senior TMC leader said.

The TMC is banking on its organisational muscle spread across 80,000 booths, likely to increase to 94,000, and is conducting workshops, training programmes and setting up task forces to monitor the revision process.

“In India, the TMC is the only political party with an intensive booth-level organisation prepared to counter any review of voter lists. This has been embedded in the party’s culture for the past 25 years. We are opposed to SIR,” TMC state vice-president Jaiprakash Majumdar told a news agency.

Majumdar said special instructions have been relayed to the booth level for checking electoral rolls.

“The entire organisation, including the party’s frontal units, has been engaged for a seamless and error-free workflow. In recent meetings, our national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee has put special emphasis on accountability in this work,” he said. To pre-empt such a scenario, the Mamata Banerjee government has aligned its flagship public outreach schemes such as ‘Duare Sarkar’ and ‘Amar Para, Amar Samadhan’ with the political task at hand. These camps have been attended by over one crore people in just 26 days. With agency inputs