West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has adopted a strategy which the BJP mastered in the recent times. Banerjee, who is on the backfoot after a drubbing in the last Lok Sabha election, has adopted a booth outreach campaign. The decision was taken as advised by the election strategist Prashant Kishor.
Kishor’s I-PAC has opened its office in Kolkata and asked the Trinamool Congress (TMC) leadership to cash in on the image of Mamata Banerjee as an independent leader. As a result, Banerjee today held a solo press conference, a first in her political life, without being accompanied by anyone.
The chief minister said that about 1,000 TMC activists will visit the polling booths of Bengal and mark their presence.
“Who will go where will be decided by the party leadership,” said Banerjee.
Banerjee also launched a campaign to connect with the people of Bengal, named Didi ke Bolo (ask Didi), to address the grievances of the people.
The decision came days after the chief minister’s admission that many of her party leaders took 'cut money'—a share from government-sponsored schemes meant for the poor people. She asked the leaders to return the money to the people.
In the run up to the election, THE WEEK had reported how TMC leaders were admonished by the people in the rural Bengal for their demanding extortion money from the people’s allocation of central and state funds, and how the BJP was gaining politically because of that.
However, the admission of the chief minister created furore across the state, with the Bengal BJP launching a major offensive against the ruling party.
Today’s attempt was made to dilute such public anger across Bengal over cut money, felt the political observers. It is learned that I-PAC has isolated Banerjee from the leaders facing serious corruption charges. Kishor deliberately stayed away from Banerjee's July 21 martyr day rally, and instead insisted that the TMC should cash in on Banerjee’s image only by isolating the other leaders.
Said a TMC leader, “There is no other leader in our party who could take on BJP in the state. We are happy that none other than didi will emerge in the party as power centre.”
The leader was probably speaking about Abhishek Banerjee, nephew of the chief minister, who is seen as a political heir of Banerjee. Abishek’s emergence resulted in an exodus of many senior leaders of the party to BJP.