Trinamul's Strategic Outreach: Mamata Engages Communities, Abhishek Focuses on SC/ST Leaders

Mamata Banerjee convened with representatives of different communities situated in the plains and hills of north Bengal, while her nephew Abhishek briefed about 3,500 leaders of Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities in Calcutta on Tuesday about the Trinamul Congress's latest campaign module.

The two actions taken simultaneously by the leaders of Trinamul clearly indicate that the ruling party will use identity politics in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections to oppose the polarization tactics of the BJP.

Mamata spent a little time meeting with members of about a dozen plains and hill villages at Dinabandhu Mancha in Siliguri town on Tuesday afternoon.

Participants at the conference were members of the development boards she established for the Lepchas, Bhutias, Thamis, Mangars, and Jains, as well as representatives from the communities of Rajbanshi, Gorkha, Namasudra, and Jains.

Our belief has always been to walk together. Bengal does not disregard any faith. I wanted to say hello to each and every one of you and to emphasize that there are no differences between villages in our state. In the meeting, Mamata stated, "To strengthen the social fabric, we all have to stay together."

According to a source in Trinamul, the party's strategy this time is to focus on various castes, communities, and religious groups throughout Bengal in order to oppose the polarization module of the saffron camp by organizing a number of local gatherings and demonstrations in certain areas.

Under the guidance of poll expert Prashant Kishor, Trinamul focused on identity politics in the 2021 Assembly elections and targeted specific communities separately. Certain Trinamul leaders think that the party gained at least 50 Assembly seats in 2021 elections by using such tactics in BJP strongholds like north Bengal and Jungle Mahal.

"Mamata's meeting with the different communities in Siliguri and Abhishek's meeting with SC and ST leaders in Calcutta is part of the party's larger plan to focus on identity concerns," said a Trinamul leader in the city.

The outcomes of elections for at least 68 Assembly seats and 14 Lok Sabha seats, in both north and south Bengal, are determined by the voters in the SC and ST communities, respectively.

Abhishek Banerjee introduced the new campaign module, Tapashilir Sanglap, at Nazrul Mancha in Calcutta. Approximately 3,500 party leaders from the SC and ST communities would host 25,000 local gatherings in various places where the SC and ST groups are predominate. The leaders would try to engage with the representatives of the villages while traveling in vehicles that were decorated.

"The party's target is to reach out to 1.5 crore voters belonging to the SC and ST communities to send a message that how the BJP had been torturing their counterpart in their states, while Trinamul had taken up multiple welfare schemes for them," according to a source close to Abhishek.

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