TIME FOR GRASSROOTS CONNECT: TMC BEGINS MASSIVE OUTREACH SHOW

With the crucial panchayat elections due in West Bengal especially at a time when TMC party’s bigwigs are under ED and CBI scanner, the party that managed to oust the CPM after its 34-year-old rule, is in a huddle and its latest mantra is to renew its hold on the grassroots connect and organisation and image facelift. With this, the party is also trying to amass public opinion in the “process of selecting” candidates for the crucial rural polls. After losing its status as a national party, the TMC now plans to hold a secret ballot to select candidates for the upcoming panchayat polls and this crucial exercise will be led by Mamata’s nephew and party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee. “I had told Abhishek not to conduct this programme, he would fall sick in this weather,” Banerjee told the media even as she announced the decision at the state secretariat on Wednesday. “The workers would also face hardships. But they have decided to connect with the people, they will begin their people connect from April 25 and continue it for the next two months.” Planned under the banner called TMC’s ‘Gram Banglar Motamot’, or opinion of rural Bengal, the statewide exercise will finally end with the selection of candidates who will be set to contest the elections given the fact that they fulfil all the requirements laid out by the Election commission. An upbeat Abhishek, meanwhile, said this was the first time such an exercise was being conducted in the country. “Across India, when it comes to deciding candidates for elections, decisions are taken behind closed doors through centralisation of power and are based on the recommendations of district and block leadership,” he said. “For the first time in India, we’ve set out to take the opinion of the people on candidates for gram panchayats to ensure, in the truest sense, a people’s panchayat.”

CRUCIAL JUNCTURE
Political analysts admit that the exercise comes at an extremely crucial time for the party (the TMC) — even as the Election Commission of India withdrew the party national party status on April 11, but the party is also fighting a series of graft allegations, such as the alleged irregularities in the recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff in the state government and aided schools. This move by the TMC is seen by political analysts as an attempt to gain ground, especially before the 2024 general elections. It may be recalled that the stage is already being set for the crucial Lok Sabha polls even as the Union Home Minister, Amit Shah was in West Bengal recently. It may be recalled that in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, BJP managed a whopping 18 seats from a mere two seats in 2014. TMC, on the other hand, won 22 Lok Sabha seats in 2019. It may be recalled that TMC had won 34 Lok Sabha seats in 2014. TMC’s latest attempt is being looked at as a move to help Abhishek cement his position as the party’s second-in-command. The TMC is attempting to change the discourse around graft charges which have been tarnishing the image, more so considering the fact that the TMC had promised zero-tolerance towards corruption when it came to power. Also, with TMC’s latest mission, it will be an attempt to ensure that Abhishek Banerjee’s grip tightens over the party’s grassroots organisation and also the distribution of tickets for the panchayat polls. This mission will also serve as a net session for the TMC before the BIG Match slated for 2024. However, political rivals don’t feel that TMC will gain much from this exercise. “Only those who can use force and have a stockpile of crude bombs will be given panchayat tickets to loot the state further for the next five years. The entire party is drowned in corruption,” BJP spokesperson Shamik Bhattacharya told reporters at a press conference in Kolkata Thursday when asked what he thought of the TMC’s move. Like the BJP, leaders of the CPM also dismissed the exercise.

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL