Abhishek Banerjee, national general secretary of the Trinamool Congress, has urged party members and officials to make sure that the TMC takes home 40 of the available 42 seats in the Lok Sabha elections of 2024. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the party won 22 seats. According to Banerjee, who is regarded as the party’s second-in-command, if the TMC had won 34–35 seats in the most recent Lok Sabha elections, the BJP administration at the Centre would not have been able to raise the price of fuel, diesel and cooking gas in such a drastic fashion. The West Bengal administration of Mamata Banerjee won’t endure through 2025, according to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who last month set a target for the BJP to win 35 of the state’s 42 Lok Sabha seats in the next election.
“Let’s strive to win 40 seats in the next Lok Sabha elections. We can definitely meet that goal if we go to work right now, if we can reach more people, and if we emphasise how little the BJP has done to improve people’s lives despite winning elections, Banerjee added. 18 West Bengali MPs for the BJP presently serve in the Lok Sabha. “Their (the BJP’s) MPS haven’t taken any action to portray the problems people are having. At a protest on Saturday night, the TMC’s Diamond Harbour MP said that they were just interested in erecting the Ram temple and causing divisions among people in the name of religion. Banerjee has been conducting a massive outreach effort since April 25 in preparation for the state’s panchayat election. He began his campaign in the Cooch Behar district in the state’s north, and he will finish it in the South 24 Parganas area in the south.
He said that the Congress and the CPIM would not speak out against the BJP administration either since they have united to attack the TMC administration because they were unable to unseat the state’s governing party. Banerjee said that the TMC would propose the candidates when the public chooses them in a secret voting process for the upcoming panchayat elections. He said, “We have no tolerance for corruption, and anyone found to be involved in graft will not receive tickets.” On Sunday night during a public gathering in Hariharpara, Banerjee assailed the state Congress president, Adhir Chowdhury, and questioned why he was surrounded by security officers supplied by the federal government.
“Why do you go with central paramilitary jawans in your vehicle? Even in West Bengal, you never consider state security. Why are you unable to acknowledge your reliance on Union Home Minister Amit Shah? You and Amit Shah have a covert agreement, he remarked. Additionally, Banerjee called the Congress the BJP’s B squad and urged people to drive them out of the Murshidabad area. Choudhury responded to Banerjee’s rant by claiming that he was making exaggerated claims to hide the TMC’s alliance with the BJP. I challenge the TMC to defeat us in Murshidabad district by winning only one seat. People will respond to him appropriately. Many people attended Banerjee’s road shows on Sunday in the Murshidabad district’s Rejinagar and Naoda neighbourhoods. As part of the public engagement initiative at Beldanga, he also spoke with young athletes.