Trinamul Congress is going to launch a two month-long programme, Trinamule Naba Joar (new wave in Trinamul) from 25 April, said national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, this afternoon. Addressing a press conference at Trinamul Bhavan he said the programme would be launched from Dinhata in Cooch Behar and end in Kakdwip in south 24-Parganas.

During the two months, Mr Banerjee will visit all the gram panchayats. This is for the first time that such an effort has been taken by the ruling Trinamul Congress. The programme is divided into two parts.

They are, Janasanjog Jatra (mass communication rally) and Gram Banglar Matamat (opinion of rural people). This is for the first time in the electoral history of India when the electorate will select the candidates, through secret ballot, for the ensuing threetier panchayat elections.

“The party has nominated names of the candidates. But we want to know the opinion of the voters. They will select the gram panchayat, panchayat samiti and zilla parishad members. If the panchayats work seriously, then only real development is possible. This will help us to select candidates, who are sincere and will finally lead to eliminate corruption or vested interest of the panchayat members.”

Janasangjog Jatra meetings will be held with the party leaders and workers during the day. The district presidents of the party, zilla parishad members, both presidents and important people in the area would join in the evening in the camps set up by the party along with local people. The expected average attendance will be around 3,000 to 4,000 people.

They will cast their votes secretly to select the candidates. There will be a website TNJ Official and by downloading the forms, local people will be able to cast their votes. In the 60-day programme, 60 sessions will be held. The number of public meetings will be 250 plus.

The party expects to get in touch with 30 lakh people. The distance travelled in 60 days will be 3,500 km. Around 3 lakh party workers will be involved in the programme. Trinamul Congress will connect with one crore people daily, digitally.

Contacts will be established with around 15,000 plus people of social eminence locally, Mr Banerjee said. Mr Banerjee made it clear that this programme has no relation with the announcement of the date of panchayat elections.

“This has nothing to do with the announcement of dates. If the dates are announced the programme will be suspended.” He reiterated that the ensuing panchayat election will be free and fair and “This can only be achieved if selection of the candidates is transparent. If people select their candidates, there will be no muscle flexing or trouble,” he said, adding, “If this experiment is successful, all the states will replicate it in future,” he said.