KOLKATA: The Trinamool Congress has decided to opt for a centralised selection of some 50,000 candidates for the panchayat elections slated to be held next year. Sources in the party said the district leadership would be asked to send at least three names for each seat in the three tiers—gram panchayat, panchayat Samiti and Zilla Parishad—to Kolkata after the festive season.
The names will be cross-checked by the surveyors who will find out the fittest candidates. The decision of centralisation is said to be a brainchild of TMC’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee which indicates a firmer grip of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew in organisational affairs.
The rural polls are said to be significant for the ruling TMC as it will help the party to gauge its grassroot electoral strength before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. “The party is desperate to recover its image damaged by corrupt panchayat functionaries. The move seems to be aimed at building up a clean image,’’ said a TMC leader.