Mamata launches a website as part of outreach strategy

With an eye on the next Assembly elections in the state, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday launched a website called www.didikebolo.com (speak to didi.com) to boost direct contact with people.

She made the announcement along with several other public outreach programmes after a meeting with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLAs.

The TMC supremo said that the key objective of the campaign is to enhance direct contact with the people by using both conventional and digital means of communication. Mamata also announced a phone number through which the people of the state express their grievances to the party.

“They (people) can also reach out to us by logging on to www.didikebolo.com (speak to didi.com)...The election is more than a year away. So we are not starting the election campaign now. We are preparing a digital platform so that people can directly contact us,” said Mamata.

The West Bengal Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in 2021.

Apart from her digital public outreach, Mamata announced that elected representatives and senior leaders of the TMC will visit more than 10,000 villages and cities in the state to interact with the people. They will also have to spend a night in the villages and cities and mingle with the booth-level workers.

During these visits, they will listen to the people. Party’s state headquarters will decide which leader will visit which place,” said Mamata.

She refuted the claims made in certain media reports that the TMC has decided to appoint salaried party workers or “whole timers” like CPM and BJP.

“A section of the media has reported that we (TMC) will appoint whole timers (salaried party workers). But it is not true. They reported this without getting a confirmation from us. Our party is a poor party. I always demand electoral reform so that there can be state funding of parties,” said Mamata.