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

West Bengal Chief Minister and All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata 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. “Party will decide who will go to which village and when,” Banerjee said.

The announcement came after Banerjee’s meeting with TMC MLAs and senior party functionaries.

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

"People can directly get in touch with us on the helpline number and the website and speak about issues affecting them. We will try and address them," Banerjee said.

The campaign was seemingly launched with an eye on the next Assembly election in the state. The next state election is expected to happen in 2021. So, why has Banerjee launched this campaign?

First campaign with Prashant Kishor

This is the first major campaign launched by TMC after getting political strategist Prashant Kishor on board. The party had signed up for Kishor’s services after the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

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.

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.

Trinamool’s vote share grew from 39.8 percent to 43.3 percent between 2014 and 2019. However, BJP’s vote share jumped from 17 percent to 40.3 percent during the same period. The BJP share came largely at the expense of the Left and Congress votes.

Countering BJP – the new rival

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

The saffron party has been growing its grassroots-level base in the state, by trying to implement its tried-and-tested ‘panna pramukhs’ system in West Bengal. The BJP’s stunning performance in the general election has been attributed to this election machinery.

Looking for a boost

The TMC has governed the state for about eight years now. This has resulted in anti-incumbency against the Banerjee-led government. Both the Left front and the Indian National Congress have not been able to challenge TMC during this period.

As a result, TMC cadre’s reach in some parts of the state laxed.

This exercise being undertaken by the Trinamool could help reinvigorate its cadre, mid-level leadership.

It could also help the party reconnect with its core voters and those in the rural areas of the state. The BJP had made its largest gains in these rural areas as the expense of the TMC.

According to the party, the campaign aims to reach at least 80 percent of the state’s households; that is roughly 1.6 crore households, the party estimates.

Eye on civic polls

In the weeks following the Lok Sabha polls, a number of councillors and legislators of the TMC joined the BJP. This, observers suggest, is in preparation for the civic elections expected to happen next year.

A strong performance, for both the BJP and the Trinamool, in these civic polls would be a stepping stone for the Assembly polls in the following year.

In fact, ThePrint has quoted BJP’s Mukul Roy as saying his party will treat the civic elections as a “mini general election”.