Kishor's team to draft report card for TMC leaders

Upon consultation with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, poll strategist Prashant Kishor has instructed his team to prepare a ground-level report of how Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders are carrying out the public outreach program as instructed by Mamata.

TMC sources revealed that from senior leaders of the party to local leaders, all will be observed by Kishor’s team when they perform the public outreach tasks.

“These reports are likely to play a key role in deciding who will get TMC tickets for the next Assembly elections in 2021,” a senior TMC leader said.

He revealed that the move stems from the fact that ahead of the Lok Sabha elections some party leaders got isolated from the public and the developmental works of the TMC government could not be upheld before the people.

TMC sources revealed that despite the success of the ‘Speak to Didi’ initiative, a section of party leaders were doubtful whether such a “mechanical means” of public outreach was good enough for revamping the party’s image before the next Assembly elections.

Although a section of TMC leaders has described Kishor’s move as “too formal” for the mass politics, a majority of them agreed that it will make the party more disciplined.

“Earlier such organisational reports were prepared by the district committees with inputs from block-level leaders. However, this process was often affected by faction feud in the party. With Kishor’s move the process will be more accurate and streamlined,” the TMC leader said.

TMC sources said that the move has put several party leaders on their toes as they do not want to miss out on the opportunity of getting a favourable report from Kishor’s team to be submitted to the party supremo.