KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee will launch her 2021 Assembly elections campaign on July 21 at a Martyr’s Day rally, an annual event that has been used by the party as a show of strength, on virtual platforms.
The rally will be telecasted on the ruling party’s social media handles in the wake of Covid pandemic.
The Bengal BJP, which surfaced as the ruling party’s principal opposition in the eastern state, has already organised two virtual rallies by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president JP Nadda.
The Martyr’s Day rally, which commemorates the slain 13 people killed in a police firing during the Left Front regime in 1993, will be Mamata’s debut on virtual platforms.
Every year, the event is organised at Esplanade, the heart of Kolkata, where lakhs of Trinamool supporters converge bringing the metropolis to a standstill.
Mamata already directed her party workers to carry out a series of protest programmes against the central government against rising fuel prices, privatisation of railways and introduction of 100 per cent FDI in the coal sector.
‘’The BJP has been unleashing attack on the chief minister on recent corruption issue that has surfaced over the distribution of financial compensation for Cyclone Amphan affected people. She already warned party satraps,’’ said a senior Trinamool leader.
“Many workers in panchayat and panchayat samity levels have already been suspended and hundreds have been slapped with showcause notices. She may again issue a strict warning because we suffered a jolt in the Lok Sabha polls because of cut-money by grass-root paty leaders.”
The government has received around 40,000 complaints alleging irregularities in the distribution of this financial relief and found that nearly 34,000 of them are genuine, according to an official.
BJP Gave wrong facts: CM to prez
Mamata on Wednesday wrote to President Ram Nath Kovind stating that the BJP legislator’s death in North Dinajpur does not appear to be a political case as projected by the BJP.
In a letter, she alleged that a BJP team presented him distorted facts.
“I am constrained to invite your kind and personal attention to a particular fact. ... On receipt of post-mortem report and on primary investigation, police reported that it (MLA’s death) is a case of suspected suicide and could be related to some local money transfer activities,” she wrote.
Funds reaching cyclone-hit: CM
Mamata on Wednesday said that people in “99 per cent” cyclone-hit areas were provided with the compensation announced by her govt, and that only a few of the “deprived” are yet to get it.