‘Instead of micro management, BJP is busy focusing on media attention, mega rallies’.
New Delhi: In a bid to counter the large-scale defections of its leaders, strong anti-incumbency against the party MLAs and the widespread corruption taint plaguing the ruling All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders, its chief election strategist Prashant Kishor is re-strategizing his plans for the upcoming 2021 Vidhan Sabha elections in Bengal.
According to highly placed sources within the TMC and Kishor’s political consulting group I-PAC, which is handling the TMC’s election strategy for the upcoming Assembly elections, a meeting comprising senior leaders of the TMC and members of I-PAC was held earlier this week on Tuesday in the Aquatica Park hotel in Kolkata where the challenges that the TMC was facing at the ground level were discussed.
The meeting was presided over by Kishor and his senior team members, who were also present in the meeting. Also in attendance were the team members, who have been stationed in all the 23 districts of Bengal.
I-PAC has stationed a four-to-five-member team in each district of Bengal and they are responsible for working with the TMC leaders in the district and to collect inputs about the challenges that the party and the MLAs are facing in these districts.
Meanwhile, according to sources present in the meeting, it has been discussed that the TMC and I-PAC would now focus on micro management of the elections and with regards to that, teams would be sent to each block of West Bengal where they would stay put till the elections are over. The teams have been given the responsibility of working with the block level and booth level leaders to undertake door-to-door campaigning and booth level management for the party.
The teams have also been given the responsibility to manage anti-incumbency for the party by designing personalised campaigns for the party at the booth level. They have also been asked to focus on the governance of 10 years of the Mamata Banerjee government and to use the face of Mamata Banerjee for every campaign that will be carried out in the blocks and districts.
Sources, aware of the deliberations that took place in the meeting, said that the TMC will now be focusing more on booth management and block level campaigning, something which the BJP, the main opponent of the TMC, is yet to master in the state.
Kishor and his team are also identifying the probable TMC leaders who are likely to join the BJP in the coming days in order to ensure that these “rats”, as they were referred to, are not given organisational works of the party.
A TMC party functionary, who is in the know of the meeting, told The Sunday Guardian, “There is anti-incumbency and we all acknowledge that. The party would be focusing more on booth level and block level campaigns to convert the tone of political campaign from large-scale rallies to more personalised door-to- door campaigns to connect with the people of Bengal. One must realise that people are angry with their MLAs and local leaders, but the image of Mamata Banerjee for Bengalis is still sacrosanct and she still enjoys the blessings and popularity from the general electorate and this is what the party will try to cash on.”
To arrest the issue of corruption and anti-incumbency, Kishor’s team is also mulling over changing multiple sitting MLAs who have been accused of corruption or the ones who have lost the faith of their electorate.
Another TMC source, who spoke to this newspaper, said that they are now focusing on BJP’s weakness; lack of organization.
“I-PAC has learnt through its ground teams that the BJP is still very weak organizationally in many districts. The BJP, instead of focusing on micro management, is busy focusing on media attention and gaining screen time through mega rallies. On the other hand, we are working to strengthen the party at the booth level. We are aware that in at least 40% of the booths in Bengal, the BJP does not have a single worker for booth management,” the source said.