Trinamool Congress chairperson and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has convened a meeting of leaders of the party here on Saturday where enforcing discipline at those levels of the party organisation that are ridden with factional feuds ahead of the rural polls in the State is to be the focus of discussions.
The meeting is being held amid speculations that the panchayat polls, due in May 2013, could be brought forward — hints of which were given at the panchayati raj sammelan of the Trinamool here in January. The sammelan virtually marked the launch of the campaign for the rural elections by the party.
Panchayat Minister Subrata Mukherjee had then suggested that the rural polls should be advanced even though he added that a final call on the matter would be taken by the Chief Minister.
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Without committing herself to any advancement of the elections, Ms. Banerjee had on the occasion cautioned that though she had not chosen to dissolve panchayats for she believed in democracy, she would be forced into taking a decision if the politics of non-cooperation continued in the rural bodies and development initiatives were resisted.
The Chief Minister has, at several times, been critical of the alleged non-functioning of certain rural bodies controlled by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) which was allegedly holding up the implementation of various development schemes.