Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee on Saturday offered voters an account of eight years of his tenure in his constituency—Diamond Harbour—and the voters' outreach programme.
The party’s national general secretary launched ‘Ek Daake Abhishek’—Abhishek at one call—a direct number that will help residents connect and raise their concerns.
“Together, we will build a model constituency for the rest of India!” Banerjee tweeted.
Banerjee said the direct-call idea was inspired by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s flagship initiative, 'Didi Ke Bolo', which offered citizens an opportunity to reach out to her directly.
There are two important points made at the launch of the outreach. Taunting the BJP, he said the Trinamool’s politics would focus on development and not religion. Second, in the party, there’s only one leader—Mamata Banerjee. The rest, including him, are all workers. There’s no number-two, number-three.
Incidentally, as the BJP is putting forth eight years of the Modi government, Banerjee also put forward his own report card in the form of a book called ‘Nishobdo Biplab’—a silent revolution.
In January this year, over 50,000 Covid-19 tests were conducted in Banerjee’s constituency on a single day. Several other arrangements were made to contain the spread of the infection. The effort that led to a steep dip in positivity rate in the constituency was hailed as the ‘Diamond Harbour’ model, named after his constituency.
Six months after the Diamond Harbour model left Trinamool debating over what’s the way forward, Banerjee yet again announced the mega outreach programme for the party workers and leaders to reach out to voters.
Banerjee’s political career started with the Trinamool coming to power in West Bengal in 2011. In political circles, Banerjee has been closely observed and often considered the ‘number-2’ in the party.
In February, the party supremo (Mamata Banerjee) dissolved the old working committee and announced a fresh one. Banerjee was reinstated as national general secretary.
The young leader, discarding the notions of opponents, is apparently engaging more with his traditional voters as Mamata attempts to knit together a national opposition to the ruling BJP.