Mamata lands in Cooch Behar, to start poll campaign today

Jalpaiguri/Siliguri: Chief minister and Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee reached Cooch Behar on Sunday to kickstart the party’s panchayat poll campaign. Party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee is scheduled to start his campaign on Tuesday from Hanskhali.
CM Banerjee is scheduled to hold two party meetings, one in Cooch Behar on Monday and the other in Jalpaiguri on Tuesday.She reached Cooch Behar in a chopper from Bagdogra on Sunday. After staying overnight, she is expected to fly to Jalpaiguri’s Chalsa. On Wednesday, she is scheduled to take a flight back to Kolkata.
With the CM starting from north Bengal, Abhishek will start campaigning from the south. He is expected to first address a public meeting in Nadia’s Hanskhali on Tuesday and attend a road show in Murshidabad’s Domkal later in the day. Abhishek’s schedule will end on July 5, which will see him campaigning across south and north Bengal. Meanwhile, as many as 36 TMC leaders on Sunday addressed meetings.
CM Banerjee’s meetings in Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri come in the backdrop of the party going all out to hit BJP’s hold in the region. In 2021 assembly polls, BJP won 11 of the 16 assembly seats in these two districts. In Dinhata, Nisith Pramanik-led BJP is locked in a bitter turf fight with Udayan Guha-led TMC.
Beyond these two districts, Darjeeling and Kalimpong are set to witness panchayat elections after 23 years. The Hill districts saw panchayat elections last in 2000. In Darjeeling, there are five panchayat samitis.
According to TMC, this is also the first time since 2011 that CM Banerjee will directly address public meetings as a part of panchayat poll campaign. The rural polls will be a run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in Bengal, say TMC leaders. The party will not cede even an inch to BJP, a leader said. Targeting BJP which questioned the CM on her campaign schedule, MP Shatabdi Roy said that Banerjee is a CM who mingles with the public and it is she who took the administration to the doorsteps of people. “BJP is worried that Mamata Banerjee is campaigning,” she said.