Battle for Bengal: Here's Prashant Kishor's 3-point strategy for Mamata Banerjee

Banerjee launched the ‘Didi Ke Bolo’ campaign on July 29. Over 1,000 Trinamool leaders and workers will be heading to Bengal’s villages for around 100 days to learn about people’s issues, Banerjee announced at a press conference in state capital Kolkata.

The chief minister also launched a party helpline number and a website to reach out to the masses and address their grievances.

The campaign was seemingly launched with an eye on the 2021 Assembly polls. This is TMC’s first major campaign after getting political strategist Prashant Kishor on board. The party had signed up for Kishor’s services after the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

Also read: Explained | What Mamata Banerjee hopes to achieve with ‘Didi Ke Bolo’ campaign

While Kishor belongs to Bihar’s ruling Janata Dal (United), he also runs a policy outfit called the Indian Political Action Committee (IPAC). JD(U) is part of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Kishor has previously helped a number of political parties retain or come to power, including YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSR Congress Party recently.

TMC had won 22 out of the West Bengal’s 42 parliamentary seats, down from the 34 it had won in 2014. The BJP, which had so far maintained a marginal presence in the state, registered a stunning rise from two seats in 2014 to 18 this time.

Many within West Bengal’s ruling party now believe that their key opponent is the BJP, not the traditional rival Left Front.

Party workers have claimed that the campaign is off to a flying start. Over one lakh phone calls were received in first 24 hours of the campaign, the party has claimed.

"Around 250-plus people are working round-the-clock on this and the party is further ramping up its resources to handle the overwhelming response," an IPAC official told news agency PTI.

Also read | Bengal people saying 'Didi ke chhoro': BJP’s Shivraj Singh Chouhan