TMC to strengthen its women support base before state polls
Kolkata: After reaping dividends of the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme in its electoral performance in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, Trinamool Congress’ (TMC) women wing is all set to launch a series of programmes to further strengthen its women support base in the state.
It was learnt that following the Saturday’s meeting of the party’s women congress, it was decided that it is the right time to further strengthen its organisation in various
districts ahead of the upcoming state elections which are to be held tentatively in 2026.
The leaders of the party’s women’s wing Chandrima Bhattacharya and Mala Roy is learnt to have told the media that from July 3 to 18, women workers will be holding meetings in every district for the July 21 Marty’s Day event of the party where the chairperson Mamata Banerjee is expected to lay out the roadmap for the upcoming state elections. On July 21, women workers from every district will be brought to the city for the gathering that is held at Esplanade.
The objective will be to get as many workers as possible. Further, a month -long women worker’s meetings will also be held in August in all the blocks and municipal areas. In September, another programme will be launched under the tagline “Mukhomukhi Amra” (face to face) with all the women TMC workers to motivate and brief them to reach out to as many women voters as possible and highlight what the state government has done for their empowerment.
It was learnt that such decisions were taken in the wake of an analysis report which showed that although the party reaped benefits of the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme in the rural areas, the response was lukewarm in urban areas where the party could not garner much votes from the women voters.
Recently, the party’s senior MP Saugata Roy had remarked that the scheme failed to sway the women voters in the urban areas contrary to the effect it had on their rural counterparts. He claimed that the lion’s share of women voters in the rural areas voted for his party which could have done better if it also had the votes of the women in urban areas.
A similar observation was made by Chandrima Bhattacharya who is learnt to have told the media that the post-election report revealed that in North Bengal, except Cooch Behar, the party could not bag enough women votes in rest of the Lok Sabha seats. A similar pattern was apparent in South Bengal too, she said.
She, however, remarked that it is apparent that the party received an overwhelming number of women voters this time due to the state government’s women empowerment schemes but now aims to bring more women into its party fold.
