With an eye on the upcoming panchayat election in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Thursday announced a new mass outreach programme ‘Trinamooley Nabajowar (New wave of Trinamool). Under the new programme, the party will initiate the process of selection of candidates for the upcoming election by taking the opinion of people at the grassroots level.
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Mr. Banerjee said he will participate in a ‘State-wide Yatra’ for a period of 60 days to connect to the people on the ground. The Trinamool leader also called the initiative to select candidates for panchayat elections based on the feedback of the people as “revolutionary” and being “held for the first time in the country”.
“In this campaign, national general secretary of AITC [Trinamool], Mr. Banerjee will embark upon a two-month-long yatra from Coochbehar to Kakdwip, starting April 25. Traversing every district of Bengal, Mr. Banerjee will interact with the masses and bring the grassroots party members together,” a press statement by Trinamool said.
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Mr. Banerjee said that during the selection process, people can give feedback through a secret ballot or online.
“During the referendum, the party members and influencers from each gram panchayat will participate in a secret ballot to recommend the right candidates for the following positions: Zilla Parishad members, Panchayat Samiti members and Gram Panchayat members. In addition, an online referendum will also be made available to the general public at www.tnjofficial.com from April 25 to enable them to participate and voice their opinions,” a party note added.
Along with the State government’s outreach initiative ‘Duare Sarkar [Government at Doorstep]’ the Trinamool had also launched another programme called ‘Didir Suraksha Kawach (Didi’s Protection Shield)‘.
Political observers said that the candidate selection initiative before panchayat election assumes significance as the party is facing heat because of the school job scam where several accused including three MLAs of the party are behind bars. The initiative is also an attempt to check factionalism in the party, where there are multiple candidates for a single panchayat seat.
Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari said such campaigns will not bear any fruit and people will “reject the party as that of thieves”.