Kolkata Apr 25 PTI The ruling TMC in Bengal which recently faced criticisms over Birbhum killings and a series of rape cases has decided to launch a mass outreach programme from May 5 the first anniversary of the the Mamata Banerjee-led governments third tenure in the stateAccording to TMC sources the programme yet to be christened would in all likelihood give common people an opportunity to register the complaints and grievances much like the successful Didi ke Bolo Tell Didi initiativeDuring a meeting with the party leaders last month Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee had said that the party would float an outreach initiative soonThe sources also said that the new programme was the brainchild of TMCs political adviser and strategist Prashant Kishor and his I-PAC teamA senior TMC leader said on the condition of anonymity that the campaign was aimed at channelising the energy of cadres who had mostly been sitting idle after last years assembly pollsFrom May 5 on the occasion of the first anniversary of our third term we will launch a new mass outreach campaign The programme aims to identify problems and ensure that they are resolved at the earliestIt will also help us identify grassroots leaders who due to their arrogance have alienated the party from the masses These leaders will be asked to fall in line or step aside the TMC leader saidHe also stated that the partys image had taken a hit owing to the negative publicity generated by opposition leaders recentlyWe need to ensure an image makeover before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls the senior leader addedThe first edition of Didi ke Bolo Tell Didi was launched by Banerjee on July 29 2019 just months after the BJP bagged 18 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state bringing down TMCs tally from 34 to 22In the first phase of Didi ke Bolo a helpline number and a website didikebolocom were launched by Banerjee Hundreds of TMC leaders and MLAs had visited villages and towns to address grievances of people PTI PNT RMS RMS

Kolkata March 30 PTI Hitting out at the Centre over the surging fuel prices the ruling TMC in West Bengal took out a rally in the city on Wednesday demanding that anti-people decisions be immediately rolled backThe rally which commenced in south Kolkatas Golpark area concluded in Rashbehari covering a distance of around 2 kmCarrying posters and placards that had Rollback fuel and LPG price hike written on them TMC activists shouted slogans against the BJP government at the CentreSeveral TMC leaders held empty cylinders and petrol cans in hand during the protestThe Centre has done nothing to control price rise of essential commodities Rather oil prices are increasing every day which then have a cascading effect on the price of other essentials How will common people survive The BJP must answer senior TMC leader and minister Chandrima Bhattacharya saidThe TMC leadership has dubbed the hike in fuel prices as a return gift to the people of this country from the BJP government after winning assembly polls in four states PTI PNT RMS RMS

Kolkata Feb 19 PTI Senior TMC leader Partha Chatterjee on Saturday was appointed as the national vice president of the party taking the total number of members holding the post in the camp to fourThe development came a day after Abhishek Banerjee was brought back as TMCs national general secretary by party supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who constituted her new team of office bearers majorly packing it with old-timers loyal to herChatterjee who is the Bengal industry minister will also continue to serve as the state secretary-general of the party a post he has held for more than two decadesPartha Chatterjee has been appointed as the national vice president He will discharge his responsibilities as the state secretary-generaltoo a senior TMC leader saidThe TMC boss had on Friday reappointed Yashwant Sinha as its national vice-presidentTwo other senior leaders -- Subrata Bakshi and Chandrima Bhattacharya were also given the vice-presidents postAbhisheks return as TMC national general secretary the de-facto number two in the party has sent out a message that Mamata Banerjee has reposed her faith in her nephew as her heir apparent amid a growing rift between the old guard and next-generation leaders PTI PNT RMS RMS

Kolkata Feb 18 PTI TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee on Friday formed a new officer bearers committee reappointing her nephew Abhishek Banerjee as the partys national general secretary and veteran leader Yashwant Sinha as its vice-presidentSenior TMC leaders Subrata Bakshi and Chandrima Bhattacharya too have also been given the post of national vice-presidentsAmong others TMC minister Aroop Biswas has been made the treasurer and Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim the in-charge of coordinationBanerjee had last week dissolved the erstwhile national office bearers committee and the portfolios that came with it amid a growing internal strife between the old guard and the young leaders She then formed a 20-member working committee packed with party veteransMeanwhile Abhisheks reappointment was seen by political observers as a confirmation that he was the heir-apparent in the partyThe TMC boss also seemed to have mollified old-timers by giving them plum posts in the organisation thus stifling the growing clamour for one party one post by some of the the younger leaders in the party PTI PNT RMS RMS

Kolkata Jan 27 PTI Asserting that the BSF has zero-tolerance towards corruption the paramilitary force on Thursday said action has been taken against some of its personnel for their alleged involvement in cross-border illegal activities including cow smuggling BSF ADG Eastern Command Y B Khurania while addressing a press conference here said the force has an internal mechanism in place to keep a check on unlawful activities of any kind It is because of the zero-tolerance towards corruption that we have seen better days in last few years there has been a decline in trans-border crimes It is because this message has gone out loud and clear that connivance with miscreants will not be tolerated he said The senior official was replying to a question on the arrest of BSF commandant Satish Kumar by the CBI for his alleged connection with a cattle smuggling racket operating at the India-Bangladesh border in West Bengal The BSF has given substantial powers to its commanders at all levels to take requisite action against erring personnel Also wherever required investigation is being carried out by other agencies Khurania said Lauding the BSF jawans over their border manning job Khurania said the force has dealt firmly with the aberrations Under the BSF Act there are provisions to take action and the same has been done in many cases Several court-martial proceedings are underway In some cases the procedure has been completed and in some other inquiry is going on he said Reacting to claims that action has been initiated by the BSF in some cases only after the CBI took cognisance of the matter Khurania said that many instances suggest that the reverse is also true He said the force has dedicated units to undertake surveillance on officers if allegations of corruption are levelled against them PTI PNT RMS RMS

Kolkata Dec 23 PTI Amid media reports of growing differences between TMC and its political consultant I-PAC the party on Thursday said there is no merit in them further asserting that the collaboration would continue under the leadership of its supremo Mamata Banerjee Drawing a distinction between the TMC and Prashant Kishor-led I-PAC senior leader Derek OBrien on Wednesday said the party hired the political advocacy group for five years and it has certain tasks to perform Without naming Kishor OBrien also said the agency or any of its officials do not necessarily reflect the partys opinion The TMC is the first political party who have hired I-PAC for five years and they have certain deliverables to do I-PAC has reach-out on the ground communication and social media All this is evaluated by the national working committee chaired by Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee he said The party taking to Twitter clarified during the day that I-PAC and the TMC work as one team There is absolutely NO MERIT in the hugely speculative unsubstantiated reporting regarding the difference of opinion or working relationship between TMC and IndianPAC Under the leadership of MamataOfficial we work as one team and will continue to collaborate in the future it tweeted Last year several leaders who quit the TMC to join the BJP ahead of the assembly polls had accused Kishor and his squad members of high-handedness an allegation denied by the organisation PTI PNT RMS RMS

Kolkata Dec 22 PTI A day after the Kolkata civic poll debacle the West Bengal BJP on Wednesday announced the formation of a new state committee axing several old guards and bringing in new leaders to strengthen the party in the state The organisational revamp had been in the offing since Sukanta Majumdar took over as the state president of Bengal BJP in September according to party sources It was put on hold for three months in view of the civic elections they said Of the five state general secretaries in the committee only party MPs Locket Chatterjee and Jyotirmoy Singh Mahato have been able to retain the post Others who have been elevated to the post are senior leaders Agnimitra Paul Dipak Barman and Jagannath Chattopadhyay Tanuja Chakraborty has been appointed as the president of Bengal BJPs Mohila Morcha womens wing replacing Agnimitra Paul Jaiprakash Majumdar one of the prominent faces of the party was removed from the post of state unit vice-president and appointed as one of its spokespersons Former journalist Charles Nandi replaced Ali Hossain as the president of the minority morcha Further Indranil Khan replaced party MP Saumitra Khan as the president of BJP state units Yuva Morcha youth wing Saumitra Khan has been made the state unit vice-president of the BJP Priyanka Tibrewal who had unsuccessfully contested against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Bhabanipur by-poll has been given the post of secretary in the state unit In all the new committee has 12 state secretaries and 11 vice-presidents PTI PNT RMS RMS

Kolkata Oct 28 PTI The TMC on Thursday launched a fresh attack on the Congress accusing the grand old party of limiting itself to Twitter space instead of firming up an opposition alliance against the BJP As West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee embarked on her three-day visit to poll-bound Goa the party in its mouthpiece Jago Bangla iterated that it would venture out to other states to expand its base and put up a formidable fight against the BJP We want an alliance to be formed against the BJP We have said this to the Congress too But it is least bothered and shows a lackadaisical approach an editorial in the TMC mouthpiece said Referring to the proposal of setting up of a joint steering committee by Banerjee during the August 20 opposition meet convened by Congress president Sonia Gandhi the editorial said nothing has moved forward since then The Congress is limited to the Twitter space The party has taken no initiative to build an opposition alliance In 2014 and 2019 too the Congress had done the same it said The editorial further clarified that the TMC would continue to bolster its strength while keeping the doors of alliance with the Congress open We have never said that an opposition alliance will be forged without the Congress But we will not waste our time for them by sitting idle it added The TMC of late has been criticising the grand old party over its alleged failure to take on the BJP Earlier this month the Mamata Banerjee-led party took a dig at Rahul Gandhis defeat at Amethi in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as it wondered if the Congress could erase the setback through a Twitter trend The relationship between the Congress and the TMC seemed to have soured after the ruling party in Bengal in its mouthpiece claimed that party supremo Mamata Banerjee and not Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has emerged as the face of the opposition PTI PNT RMS RMS

Kolkata Aug 31 PTI BJP MLA from Bagda Biswajit Das on Tuesday joined the TMC the third saffron party legislator to do so since the assembly poll results were declared in May Das a two-time MLA from the TMC had switched over to the BJP in 2019 He won from Bagda on a BJP ticket in 2021 assembly polls I never felt very comfortable in the BJP I wanted to return to the TMC long ago The BJP has done nothing for Bengal he said after joining the party in presence of TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee On Monday another BJP legislator Tanmoy Ghosh had returned to the TMC Earlier in June BJP MLA and partys national vice-president Mukul Roy rejoined the TMC four years after he left the Mamata Banerjee-led party to join the saffron camp PTI PNT RMS RMS

Kolkata Aug 22 PTI The TMC on Monday claimed that the Centres National Monetisation Pipeline NMP is an example of government getting privatised by crony capitalists and demanded the immediate rollback of the anti-people decision The partys Rajya Sabha chief whip Sukhendu Sekhar Ray also said that never before in the history of independent India a Union government has so helplessly surrendered to the corporate This BJP government is run by the corporate of the corporate and for the corporate This government has been completely privatised by crony capitalists Uunder the garb of National Monetisation Pipeline NMP it is actually a privatisation programme They are selling off everything -- from railways to ports and highways This is a bankrupt government We want immediate rollback of the decision he said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday announced the Rs-6 lakh crore National Monetisation Pipeline NMP scheme which will look to unlock value in infrastructure assets across sectors ranging from power to road and railways PTI PNT RMS RMS