BackWill Mamata Banerjee deliver a different message in annual rally?
This year, following her landslide victory in the assembly election, TMC leaders are expecting Mamata Banerjee to deliver a 'zero-tolerance diktat' to followers
PremiumPhoto: Indranil Bhoumik/Mint
Kolkata: For commuters in Kolkata, 21 July is always a nightmare.
It’s an annual ritual: on this day, hundreds of thousands of Trinamool Congress supporters from across the state march to Kolkata to commemorate the 1993 killing of 16 Youth Congress activists.
Many schools are shut and attendance thin in the ones that are open. Traffic has ground to a halt from early in the morning, and Kolkata will limp back to life only in the evening, hours after Banerjee has left the dais.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has traditionally used this annual gathering of followers to launch scathing attacks on her political opponents and to rally support by getting defectors to join her party.
But this year, following her landslide victory in the assembly election two months ago, Trinamool Congress leaders are expecting Banerjee to deliver a very different message.
It seems she has made up her mind not to put up with extortion any more, said a key leader, asking not to be named. Even last year, she had warned from the 21 July dais that her party would not shelter people who use their political clout to aggrandize personal fortunes, but no firm action was taken in view of the approaching assembly election, the leader said.
But this time, the police have already started a crackdown on such rogue elements. The administrative action appears to have been timed to coincide with the 21 July rally, setting the stage for Banerjee to deliver her “zero-tolerance diktat" to followers, according to the leader cited above.
This is going to be Banerjee’s first political rally since she came to power for a second term, and key officers in the administration said they expected her to announce on Thursday her political agenda for the next five years.
It is clear that she will not veer from the path of rural development that she has followed in the past five years, said an officer, asking not to be named. But alongside, it appears she is trying to shore up support for her party by stamping out rogue elements.
“It’s a trade-off, but having won 211 (of the state’s 294 assembly) seats this time, she appears to have mustered the political will to bite the bullet," the officer added.
Targeted police action has already started against so called syndicates of construction material suppliers. It will continue as Banerjee seeks to lift her party’s image. Improving law and order is her next big target, and on Thursday, she is going to rub that into the minds of Trinamool Congress supporters “of all ranks", said the leader cited above.
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