Trinamool’s second-in-command Abhishek Banerjee on Monday asked party leaders of Cooch Behar and Alipurduar to pull up their socks for efforts to thwart the BJP from winning Assembly seats in the 2026 state elections.

In 2021, the BJP had won all five seats in Alipurduar and seven of nine seats in Cooch Behar. Later, in the bypolls, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool could win three seats, Madarihat in Alipurduar and Dinhata and Sitai in Cooch Behar.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Trinamool wrested the Cooch Behar Lok Sabha seat from the BJP, but the latter managed to retain the Alipurduar seat for the second time.

“Abhishek Banerjee made it clear that we will have to retain the support that we got in the Lok Sabha polls. All the leaders in the district will have to launch block-wise campaigns extensively to prevent the Opposition from gaining mileage,” said Abhijit De Bhowmik, the Cooch Behar district Trinamool president, who was present at the meeting held in Calcutta on Monday.

Trinamool insiders said that Abhishek, Trinamool’s national general secretary and Diamond Harbour MP, made it clear that no infighting would be allowed within the party.

“In districts like Cooch Behar and Alipurduar, acute infighting among Trinamool leaders who head different lobbies is one of the key reasons for the party’s failure in the last Assembly election. This time, the party wants to ensure that such differences do not affect results,” said a party functionary.

At the meetings with leaders of these two districts, talks were also held about the acceptability of leaders, office bearers and elected representatives.

“As elections will be held in less than a year, that was an important aspect of talks. The party wants to ensure that no leader about whom people have reservations at the block level is put in the forefront during the campaign,” said a source.

The leaders who attended the meeting were also told to continue political activities in protest of the special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll and the recent notices served to some residents of both districts by the foreigners’ tribunal of Assam, asking for proof of their Indian citizenship.

“There is a clear instruction that Trinamool should fully back all people who have received such notices,” said a Trinamool leader from Alipurduar.