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Mamata Banerjee’s ‘emissaries’ face heat on ground ahead of panchayat polls
Recently TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee launched her party’s new outreach programme ‘Didir Suraksha Kavach (Didi’s Protective Shield)’ in which 350 state and district level leaders are visiting the villages as Didir Doot (Didi’s emissaries)
Several MPs and MLAs of the ruling-Trinamool Congress in West Bengal have faced protests from villagers over the past four days when they went to interact with the people as a part of the party’s massive outreach programme ahead of the crucial panchayat polls due this year.
Recently, TMC supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee launched her party’s new outreach programme ‘Didir Suraksha Kavach (Didi’s Protective Shield)’ in which 350 state and district level leaders will visit the villages as Didir Doot (Didi’s emissaries) with 15 flagship schemes of the government. Banerjee is popularly called Didi (elder sister).
Ever since the programme kicked off from January 11, multiple leaders have faced angry protests from the masses, promoting jeers from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the principal opposition party in the state.
“The outreach programme has been designed to hear the grievances of the people. We have 216 legislators. It can’t be that everyone has worked extremely well and there are no grievances among the people. Our leaders are reaching out to hear the grievances so that the gaps may be plugged,” said Firhad Hakim, state minister.
While it was the party’s state general-secretary Kunal Ghosh who faced protests on Wednesday in East Midnapore, forest minister Jyotipriya Mullick faced the heat on the ground in Nadia. On Friday Birbhum MP Satabdi Roy faced similar protests. The TMC’s youth wing leader Debangshu Bhattacharya failed to enter a village after being confronted by agitators at Dubrajpur in Birbhum. Barrackpore MP Arjun Singh and party state secretary Sayantika Banerjee also faced protests.
A controversy was triggered when Roy was seen leaving a worker’s house in Birbhum district without having food even after being offered lunch.
“I am the TMC MP for three times and have been having food with workers regularly over the past 14 years. I had food in the worker’s house on that day too. The opposition is unnecessarily spreading propaganda,” Roy told reporters on Saturday.
During Roy’s visit to a remote village at Rampurhat in Birbhum district, an elderly villager was seen complaining of bad roads.
“We have been complaining of bad roads multiple times. When will the roads be repaired. We want to hear from you,” he told the TMC MP.
While in some areas people complained of bad roads and no water connection even after repeatedly telling the local MP and MLA, in other areas they complained of not getting the benefits of government schemes.
“We had voted him Abhijit Roy and sent him there (state legislative assembly). But now he passes through the village in a car with the windows closed as if he doesn’t know us,” a villager Durjamal Sheikh complained to Asit Mal, TMC MP from Birbhum against Roy.
On Saturday, a TMC worker courted controversy when he thrashed a man who had come to tell his grievances at the outreach programme in North 24 Parganas. The victim was later identified as Sagar Biswas, a local BJP leader.
“It has nothing to do with politics or the TMC’s outreach programme. The two are members of two local clubs and had problems over a field,” said Rathin Ghosh, state food minister.
The panchayat poll, ahead of which the outreach programme has been launched, is crucial as it is being seen as a litmus test for both the TMC and the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The BJP too has stepped up its attack against the TMC after TMC leaders faced the ire of villagers in some areas.
“The TMC has been unmasked. Now people have come to know about the party’s corruption because of the court ordered investigations by central agencies and the data that are being submitted by central teams. Hence people are protesting. The way protests have erupted it seems that the TMC will have to wind up their outreach programme very soon. The leaders won’t be able to visit the villages as people are very angry,” said Rahul Sinha, senior BJP leader.
