Abhishek Banerjee Meets Trinamool MPs For Groundwork Ahead Of Bengal Polls

A day after Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee elevated her nephew Abhishek Banerjee as the parliamentary party leader in the Lok Sabha, the Trinamool MP held a virtual meeting of all party leaders from district to the organisational fronts. 

Trinamool sources have told NDTV this meeting is crucial to prepare a roadmap for the next few months before elections are announced in Bengal. 

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah frequently visiting the state, the ruling party does not want to give any space to the opposition to register a political fight. 

While the Special Intensive Revision or SIR held by the Election Commission dominated the meeting's agenda, Abhishek Banerjee also instructed party cadres to fight tooth and nail against the BJP to portray them as anti-Bengal. 

As an example, he highlighted the Delhi Police communique seeking Bengali translation but instead called it "Bangladeshi Language". 

Slamming the BJP's IT cell chief, Abhishek Banerjee even mentioned how no BJP MLA stood up against the contentious letter.   

Mr Banerjee also raised the issue of NRC letters being sent to Bengal residents by the Assam government. 

A source privy to the meeting said he cited SIR and mentioned how a dog and tractor had fake residential certificates in Bihar. 

Speaking on Central fund blockade, Mr Banerjee told his leaders that more than 1.75 lakh crore rupees has been withheld by the BJP-led government but the West Bengal government is no longer dependent on it.

As an example, he added, how the first two installments of the housing scheme undertaken by Mamata Banerjee has been disbursed to the beneficiaries. 

In the coming days, the Trinamool Congress leadership plans to raise the party's voice against SIR and linking it to NRC to downsize BJP in the state and also highlight the various schemes that the state government has funded despite the lack of Central funds.