Abhishek Banerjee on Friday reportedly instructed the Trinamool Congress rank and file to ensure booth-level officers (BLOs) are "manmarked" over the next few months by the party's booth-level agents (BLAs), according to sources present in a virtual meeting chaired by him.
The party's national general secretary and MP asked BLAs not to stop shadowing the BLOs even for a minute presumably while they were conducting the contentious special intensive revision (SIR) in Bengal.
He also purportedly directed one set of BLAs of every district to appoint another set of BLAs who be tasked with accompanying the BLOs during the door-to-door verification process to ensure total transparency.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew and heir apparent also instructed the running of 6,200 SIR camps, with laptops, printers, and Wi-Fi, for a month starting November 4, said the sources.
There will be other phases of the camps till January 31 next year, which will operate daily between 9am and 5pm, to function as all-purpose helpdesks for the resolution of all problems of people with regard to the SIR.
He asked for a detailed report of the work done everyday to be sent to his office. He also gave a specific phone number — 8142681426 — for contacting his office for the resolution of all problems or complaints of people related to the SIR.
Around 18,000 leaders, including MPs, MLAs, block presidents, and panchayat presidents, attended this virtual meeting on Friday.
"Abhishek again repeated that the SIR means Silent Invisible Rigging, raised the issue of suicides arising out of SIR/NRC fears in Bengal, condemned the saffron regime for the exclusionary, opaque exercise, and lambasted the Election Commission for acting as the BJP's political stooge.... He said the judiciary would be approached, in addition to a major movement in Delhi that he would lead from the front," said the source in the know.
"The BJP wants to divide and humiliate people in the name of SIR and NRC, while Trinamool workers will help ensure no one’s name is deleted.... I will myself be in the streets for next few months," the source quoted Abhishek as saying in the meet.
"We have to be ready to fight against these jomidar (feudal lords) branding us as outsiders in our own land. Our battle starts from next few days, no time can be wasted... this is our acid test, these six months ahead of us."
According to a party senior, Abhishek said the BLAs must ensure no BLO could get away with anything unethical or illegitimate.
"He also ordered the MPs and MLAs to set up war rooms. At least one war room has been ordered to be set up in each of the 294 Assembly constituencies. There will be 15 people in each war room, 10 of them coordinating with BLA-2s and five handling data entry," he said, adding that special instructions were issued for extra caution in north Bengal districts, in the migrant worker homebases of Malda-Murshidabad and Matua-populated areas in Nadia-North 24-Parganas.
"If even one eligible voter's name is deleted, one lakh people from Bengal will descend outside Nirvachan Sadan in Delhi," he was quoted as saying. "The BJP wants to divide Bengal. They want to disenfranchise minorities, Matuas and the poor.... We must send a strong message that Trinamool Congress stands firmly with the masses... this is no longer a political question but a fundamental question that determines the course of our democracy."