All eyes on Mamata as TMC prepares for its first mega virtual rally today

TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee is likely to kick start the party's digital campaign for the 2021 assembly polls with a mega digital rally today. According to party sources, the party is planning to reach out to more than five crore people of the state through the use of digital media. Efforts are on to ensure giant screens at various areas and localities of the state with loudspeakers to ensure Banerjee's message reaches to every household.

Kolkata: Even as the TMC leadership is apprehensive whether its first mega digital rally today would evoke a similar response as it used to during previous years, all eyes are on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's message to party workers ahead of next year's crucial assembly polls.

According to party sources, Banerjee is likely to kick start the party's digital campaign for the 2021 assembly polls with the rally.

Today's rally is not just a show of strength on the part of TMC but also a platform which sets the tone of the party's policies and politics for the entire year.

"All eyes will be on message by Mamata di for 2021. It is indeed the toughest election the party is facing after 2011. In 2011, we were challenger, and in 2021 we are the defender. That's the difference," a senior TMC leader said.

Mamata Banerjee will give an important message for assembly polls of 2021. Most of our workers are sitting idle due to COVID pandemic. So this rally will set the tone for next year's assembly polls, a senior TMC leader said.

According to TMC sources, with crucial assembly polls just 10 months away, a typical July 21 rally would have been the most suitable platform for party supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to set the tone for next year's assembly polls.

"It would have been better, had the things been normal and we were able to organise a normal rally just like previous years. But due to COVID pandemic, we are forced to organise a digital rally. Although we would try to reach out to maximum number of people, a digital rally can never match the passion and energy of a normal mega rally," another senior TMC leader said.

According to party sources, the party is planning to reach out to more than five crore people of the state through the use of digital medium and the team of I-PAC of poll strategist Prashant Kishor is looking into it to ensure that the message and speech of Banerjee is percolated to every block and village of the state.

Efforts are on to ensure giant screens at various areas and localities of the state with loudspeakers to ensure Banerjee's message reaches to every household, a TMC leader said.

The BJP and the TMC, which have been at each other's jugular over the handling of the COVID-19 situation, migrant workers' plight and cyclone Amphan, have launched a blitzkrieg on various virtual platforms, tearing into each other over these issues.

The TMC was first off the block with Mamata Banerjee holding a virtual meeting with functionaries and public representatives on June 5, outlining the party's strategy for the polls.

The Bengal BJP took the plunge on June 9, with Union Home Minister Amit Shah kick-starting a virtual rally.

The saffron camp had emerged as the primary challenger of TMC in the state after winning 18 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the last parliamentary polls.

The July 21 'Martyrs Day' rally is observed annually by TMC to commemorate the killing of 13 people in police firing in 1993, when Mamata Banerjee, then a Youth Congress leader, had launched a march to the secretariat, demanding that voters' card be made the only document to allow people to exercise their franchise.

PTI