Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress will launch a mass outreach programme in West Bengal to counter BJP’s positive narrative about the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), the notification for which was announced by the Union Home Ministry on Monday.
Campaigns under the mass outreach programme christened ‘Tafsili Sanglap’ will start from March 15, as decided by Trinamool General Secretary and Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee at an internal party meeting held here on Tuesday.
The meeting was attended by the party leaders and elected representatives from the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities.
Under the programme, the party leaders will extensively travel to those pockets of West Bengal which have a sizable population from the SC and ST backgrounds, and campaign on the reported events of oppression against backward-class people in the BJP-ruled states.
The Trinamool will also publish a special booklet for free distribution, while the party leaders during the campaign will highlight the development initiatives adopted by the West Bengal government for the welfare of the backward-class people.
It is perceived that the said programme is especially aimed at countering the positive narratives by the BJP on the CAA notification, especially amid the celebrations among the Matua people, which is a backward-class refugee community from neighbouring Bangladesh scattered over different pockets of West Bengal, mainly the Bangaon subdivision in North 24 Parganas district.
Considering that Matua votes can be a deciding factor in certain constituencies of the state, the party feels the need to counter BJP’s positive narratives on the CAA.
–IANS