Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) West Bengal President Sukanta Majumdar. file | Photo Credit: ANI
The BJP on Monday launched a mass contact program aimed at the rural population, months ahead of the panchayat elections in the state.
BJP State President Sukant Majumdar launched “Gram Sampark Abhiyan” in Purba Medinipur district.
The ruling Trinamool Congress claimed that the saffron camp had copied its programme.
“In West Bengal, under the corrupt TMC rule, poor people do not have access to basic services like sanitation and housing facilities. Gram Sampark Abhiyaan is to reassure people and listen to their problems and ensure they get benefits of central schemes,” Mr Majumdar said while introducing the programme.
The mass outreach programme, launched keeping in mind the panchayat elections likely to be held in April-May this year, will cover around 2000 villages and 100 rural assembly constituencies in the state.
The event comes nearly two months after the TMC launched a massive outreach campaign, ‘Didir Suraksha Kavach’ (Didi’s protective shield), to help people get benefits from the state government’s pro-people projects.
TMC leaders have been facing protests in different parts of the state as they organized programs in every nook and corner.
A senior BJP leader said, “Apart from reaching out to people with our policies and programmes, our public relations program aims to reach out to people in areas, especially where TMC leaders have faced opposition.”
Responding to BJP’s programme, TMC described the saffron camp as “a bad student who always wants to pass the exam by copying from the topper in the class”.
“BJP is just copying our programme. They don’t have any ideas, so they must resort to stealing our ideas. BJP is like a bad student who always wants to pass the exam by copying from the topper in the class. But even after copying our programme, it will not yield any result in rural elections.
The BJP’s campaign comes at a time when the party is looking to strengthen its organizational machinery ahead of the panchayat polls in the state, which has seen infighting and defections since the 2021 assembly election results.
Many senior leaders are engaged in social media feuds and on social media, leaving little time for the development of the party.
The state unit is working hard to keep its flock together after six MLAs, including former Union minister Babul Supriyo, party MP Arjun Singh and its national vice-president Mukul Roy, defected to the TMC following the 2021 assembly election results.
The Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Banerjee stormed back to power for the third consecutive time riding on the election issue of “Bengali pride” and won 213 seats.
The TMC fueled ‘Bengali pride’ by coming up with an election slogan, “Bangla nijer meikei chai” (Bengal wants its daughter), and created an election narrative of sub-nationalism to counter the BJP’s identity politics. Can go 2021 assembly elections.