After Rahul Gandhi, TMC's Abhishek Banerjee to Begin Two-Month 'Sanjog Yatra' Ahead of Polls

Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee will begin his ‘Sanjog Yatra’ for two months from April 25 in an effort to connect with people and understand the situation on the ground ahead of the panchayat polls and the 2024 Lok Sabha battle.

Banerjee will visit and stay in different villages during his yatra — which will start from Cooch Behar and end in Sagar Island in South 34 Pargana — and return to Kolkata after two months.

TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said: “We are going to start ‘Sanjog Yatra’ from April 25. Abhishek Banerjee will conduct it. He will meet people and try to find out their problems. Side by side, the Suraksha Kawach programme will continue.”

TMC sources said taking a leaf out of Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, Abhishek Banerjee had decided to undertake the exercise to connect with people.

As per political pundits, the outreach will set the tone for the panchayat polls and the Lok Sabha elections scheduled for next year.

Kunal Ghosh, TMC’s general secretary, said: “Abhishek Banerjee himself took the initiative to meet common people. Our ‘Didir Surakha Kawach’ is also very successful so he himself wanted to meet common people.”

Some say the yatra will also help build Brand Abhishek Banerjee as the leader, apart from managing the party, tries to build grassroots connect. Experts say in 2021, he showed that he can manage a winning team but the yatra will help present him as a people’s man.

Third, Mamata Banerjee’s decision to announce the yatra is being seen as a seal of approval that the baton of her political legacy will be handed over to her nephew. The exercise will also help nullify a campaign against him that attacks him for not connecting with the common man.

While BJP’s Samik Bhattacharya said the yatra would not help the Trinamool Congress as people had already planned their exit, a gung-ho TMC and Abhishek Banerjee hope it will be successful in giving the party the much-needed fillip ahead of crucial poll battles.

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