KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress leaders Mamata and Abhishek Banerjee are all set to kick off campaigns separately in the State from March 23 for the upcoming Assembly elections.
Notably, the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has removed around 64 lakh voters from the final list of electors.
Suvendu Adhikari, Leader of the Opposition in the State legislative assembly, has already kick-started campaigns in the high-profile assembly constituency, Bhabanipur, in south Kolkata, to take on the sitting MLA and outgoing CM Mamata Banerjee to reach out to voters.
Bhabanipur will go for a vote on April 29.
On Saturday, while unveiling the Trinamool Congress manifesto for the assembly polls in the State, Mamata said she would kick off campaigns after the Eid festival.
Mamata will attend a meeting with her party activists under the Bhabanipur constituency at Ahindra auditorium in the Chetla area as a first preparatory move to take stock of the electoral situation in the Assembly constituency.
Senior leaders, including Subrata Bakshi, State president of the party, Debashis Kumar, South Kolkata district president, Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim, and seven party councillors from Bhabanipur, will attend the meeting.
According to the party insiders, local councillors, along with party workers, will reach out to electors in booths in the constituency, highlighting success stories related to different development and social security schemes under the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government.
In the last Lok Sabha elections in 2024, Trinamool Congress MP Mala Roy had a lead of more than 6000 votes, but she had trailed behind the BJP in five municipal wards 63,70,71,72 and 73 in Bhabanipur.
Besides this significant factor, the names of more than 47,000 voters have been deleted from the list in Bhabanipur following the SIR exercise.
Over 14000 electors belonging to ‘under adjudication’ are awaiting clearance from the judicial officers to exercise their voting rights in the constituency.
"A proper plan would be outlined on Sunday evening, meeting Trinamool workers on how to counter the Opposition BJP during the month-long campaigns in Bhabanipur", the party insiders said.
On the other hand, Abhishek will also kick off the election campaign on March 24 with a public meeting in South 24-Parganas’ Patharpratima and meet party workers in Nandigram the day after.
Apart from Bhabanipur, Suvendu is also contesting from Nandigram in East Midnapore, where he had defeated Mamata in the 2021 assembly polls.
The Trinamool Congress has pitted Pabitra Kar, a former key aide of Suvendu, against him in Nandigram. "Nandigram holds a special place for both Didi [Mamata] and Abhishek," said a Trinamool Congress leader.
“The movement against the Left Front government peaked here. This time, Suvendu will lose both seats,” the leader said.
Kar, a member of the hardliner Hindu Sanhati, joined the Trinamool Congress, the day Mamata Banerjee announced the candidate lists for the upcoming Assembly polls that will be held in two phases April 23 and 29.
Significantly, the Trinamool Congress sources said that this time, Abhishek played a key role in the candidate selection.
Also, the workers’ meeting in Nandigram will be his first internal meeting since the poll schedule was announced. Sources close to Abhishek said he will hold three public meetings in West Midnapore's Daspur, Keshiary and Narayangarh before heading for Nandigram.