TMC asks party leaders to boost mass contact during Pujas

The Trinamool Congress has asked party leaders and ministers to stay in their respective areas during Durga Puja and connect with the people.

According to TMC sources, the party has sent directives to all the district units, ministers and public representatives not to go on vacation during the Puja and use the festival to boost contact with the people and remain alert in order to avoid any untoward incident.

The party high command has also instructed the leaders to ensure maximum mass contact with the people without using the TMC banner.

"We been asked not to go out of our respective constituencies during the Durga Puja period till the immersion of idols is over. Senior leaders have asked us to remain alert in order to avoid any untoward incident. The BJP and the saffron camp might try to do some mischief," a senior TMC leader said.

"We have been told that there should not be any flex or banners of party leaders near any puja pandal so that there in no impression that we are politicising the festival. Durga Puja is not just a festival but a social event - so we just can't afford to send out a wrong message," said another TMC leader of North 24 Parganas district.

The party has, however, asked its workers to ensure that stalls of 'Jago Bangla' - the TMC mouthpiece - are set up outside all the Durga Puja pandals.

It has instructed party leaders to reach out to disgruntled leaders, elderly people and apolitical but influential people in their respective areas as a part of mass connect during Durga Puja, a senior TMC leader said.

The decision by TMC comes in the backdrop of the BJP-TMC turf war in Bengal intensifying during the festive season.

The two parties are leaving no stone unturned to outsmart each other in controlling the city's big-ticket Durga pujas and reaching out to as many people as possible during the five-day festival.

In the last decade several top ministers and leaders of the ruling TMC were seen patronising major pujas across the state. The BJP is now taking the same route to push its own agenda, albeit with moderate success.

The saffron party has decided to set up more than 10,000 stalls outside puja pandals to display books on its ideologies and educate masses on the contentious issues of National Register of Citizens(NRC) and Citizenship(Amendment) Bill.