KOLKATA: Ahead of the rural polls in West Bengal, the ruling TMC is all set to commence a mega mass outreach campaign on Tuesday from Cooch Behar district, with party leader Abhishek Banerjee planning to travel across the state for the next two months.
Abhishek, who is the nephew of TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee and considered the party's number two leader, will start the campaign, 'Trinamool ey Nabajowar' (new wave in Trinamool) and will continue with the initiative for 60 days.
During this campaign, he will travel around 3,500 km and hold more than 250 rallies across the state.
"From April 25, we will start our campaign from Cooch Behar in north Bengal. In the next two months, we will traverse several districts of Bengal and culminate our journey at Sagar Islands in South 24 Parganas. We intend to cover every district and gram panchayat during our campaign," the TMC MP told reporters.
The outreach campaign aims at reaching out to people and empowering them to decide on TMC candidates for the ensuing panchayat polls through secret ballots, he had said.
On Tuesday, Abhishek is scheduled to meet the family members of a person, who was killed by the BSF accusing him of being a cattle smuggler, in Dinhata area.
The TMC's national general secretary will also visit a temple in the area and offer puja there, following which he will address three back-to-back rallies in Dinhata, Sitai and Sitalkuchi assembly constituencies.
Later in the evening, Banerjee will participate in a convention and Gram Banglar Motamot (Opinion of rural Bengal) event, where locals will give their choice of TMC candidates for the rural polls through secret ballots.
The outreach programme has been undertaken by the TMC at a time when the ruling party of West Bengal is facing various corruption charges, and the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate have arrested several of its leaders.