KOLKATA: Eyeing hat-trick in the crucial 2021 Assembly elections, ruling Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee asked party leadership and election strategist Prashant Kishor, who was hired by the TMC after its unimpressive performance in the general elections in 2019, to find out what were the reasons in the ground reality that led a section of the party’s foot-soldiers to either become inactive or shift sides to the BJP.
Kishor’s team I-PAC has swung into action and it is preparing a ground-level report. Mamata’s decision to engage Kishor on this issue came after the party leaders in districts did not respond to her earlier call to engage inactive workers in the party’s regular activities.
In her speech on Martyr’s Day on July 21, Mamata also issued a clarion call asking former party workers who had shifted sides to come back to the TMC.
"After the TMC came to power in West Bengal, a section of our party workers, who had played a key role in overthrowing Left Front government in the state in the party’s grass-root level, became inactive over the past few years.
It was because of intra-party feud and discontent over the issue of distribution of political and administrative responsibility.
There was a significant exodus in the party’s lower rung after BJP’s deep inroads in the state in 2019 Lok Sabha elections after it bagged 18 seats.
The party supremo realised the inactive foot-soldiers will have to be engaged in next year’s electoral battle. She, accordingly, directed the district-level leaders," said a senior TMC leader.
But the party leaders in the districts did not respond to Mamata’s call as most of the inactive workers belong to their rival faction, said the leader.
Realising the issue and its possible impact on the next year’s election, Kishor was asked to engage his team to work on it, said a source in the party.
"Kishor’s team in districts already started interacting with the inactive TMC workers and asking them the specific reasons for their decision to sit idle.
Kishor is also planning to launch a massive drive on social networking platforms by floating phone numbers for this section of party workers and others who defected to the BJP but now want to return to the mother party," said another leader of the ruling party.
The TMC received a massive jolt in the last Lok Sabha elections in north Bengal and part of south Bengal which used to be considered the party’s strongholds.
An internal survey of the party had revealed a mass exodus in the party’s support base caused the sharp dent in its vote-bank.