TMC SECOND IN COMMAND ABHISHEK BANERJEE CHARTS OUT BOOTH LEVEL STRATEGY FOR 2026 POLLS

New brooms sweep clean. And after being made the leader of All India Trinamool Congress in the Lok Sabha, Abhishek Banerjee has turned his sights on the polling booths of West Bengal for a triumphant result in 2026 Assembly elections in the state.

Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress has been on a winning run in West Bengal since the 2011 Assembly polls. After it left its brief coalition with TMC, Congress inked an electoral alliance with CPI(M) led Left Front and shared Opposition benches with its longtime political opponent.

But things changed drastically post 2021 Assembly elections in which BJP emerged as the principal Opposition party in the state Assembly. For the first time in post independence period, neither the Congress nor the Left had any legislator in the Assembly. Opposition to the TMC state government became much more strident by the saffron camp. The Left and the Congress were relegated to the sidelines .

Now that the reins of the Trinamool Congress in the Lok Sabha are in his hands, Abhishek is aiming to roll
back the saffron wave that threatened to remove the TMC from governance in 2021 elections.

Banerjee has chosen to zero in on the polling booths where electoral fortunes are won or lost. The leader in charge of a booth together with the booth level agent (BLA) of those booths will be replaced where the BJP nominee secured a lead of more than 100 votes in 2024 LokSabha polls and 2026 Assembly elections. In a show of political maturity beyond his years,  there is no trace of arbitrariness about Abhishek’s game plan. For the ‘weeding out” process is based on two successive elections.

Both the individuals in charge of a booth can get away for failing to ensure a lead for TMC in one election, it was learnt from Trinamool sources. But occurrence of the same state of affairs will mean dissociation from the booth the duo manned.

Banerjee, it was learnt has not ruled out the presence of turncoats lying low amidst the rank and file ,
sources in the TMC stated. After all, there was almost an exodus to the BJP from senior TMC leadership before 2021 Assembly polls.

Most of these deserters have returned to the outfit they had left. The 100-plus lead in many of the north Bengal booths and a few in south Bengal polling stations in ’21 and ’24 elections are stated to have
raised Abhishek’s suspicion, sources added.

In this backdrop, the unofficial number two in Trinamool does not want to take any chances. And he seeks to make the “inter-,party deletions’ long before his party hits the campaign trail. Banerjee has done his homework well before he set about a task not too pleasant. During the ’21 and ’24 elections, there were about 80,000 polling booths in West Bengal

The BJP surged ahead of TMC in 25,000-odd booths in the two elections, sources stated. But the lead of more than 100 votes was not recorded in many of these booths, it was learnt. The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is also within Abhishek’s scanner. SIR’s fallout led to deletion of the names of thousands of voters in Bihar

The Booth Level Officers (BLO)s appointed by Election Commission play a vital role in deletion and inclusion of voters names after SIR got underway. Abhishek has called upon his party activists to keep an
eye on the BLOs’ functioning.

Raising the consciousness of the voters is a key agenda in this scheme. The activists have been asked to publicize the benefits of the social welfare schemes of the TMC state government and tell the voters that once their names are selected, they will not longer be enjoying the schemes’ benefits.

Attention of the voters are also to be drawn on the atrocities faced by migrant workers from West Bengal
in other states. The TMC activists have been asked to underscore the apprehension of the identity crisis
visiting the voters of the state if BJP manages to replace the TMC dispensation.

After all, the migrant workers have been targeted in BJP-ruled states for speaking Bengali and labelled
Bangladeshi infiltrators. The migrant workers have also been persecuted for their food habits which differ from the local populace.

Asking the party rank and file to shout ‘Joy Bangla” at the sight of BJP leaders is among the suggestions as the 2026 assembly election inches closer. The TMC think tank feels that it will rile their political opponents.

The suggestion comes in the wake of leader of the Opposition Subhendu Adhikari getting down from his car on hearing a slogan which had once been the rallying cry of Bangladesh’s freedom struggle. The slogan was on the lips of party supremo, Mamata Banerjee to underscore the Bengali identity of her political outfit.

However, Adhikari was not named by Abhishek in his address to the rank and file during the virtual meeting. But the message is loud and clear – if barracking ensures electoral triumph, TMC will not shy away from it.