With her popularity taking a severe beating in the recent Lok Sabha polls when the BJP made inroads in nearly half of Bengal winning 18 of 42 LS seats, Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee today launched a party helpline number and a website for the people to contact her and the party directly.

The state BJP immediately mocked at the “so-called mass contact” initiative and said “it only shows the extent to which Miss Banerjee has become alienated from the masses since she captured power.”

“She did have such a phone number before, but no one from the party’s end ever picked it up and responded. The same fate awaits the new number as well,” her former party lieutenant and now BJP leader Mukul Roy said.

Launching the 10-digit helpline number ~ 9137091370 ~ and the website ~ www.didikebolo.com~ , Miss Banerjee said Trinamul leaders and activists would fan out across the state, spend time with the people, stay overnight in the villages, if needed, and listen to their complaints.

“Over the next 100 days, more than 1,000 party leaders and workers will reach out to 10,000 villages in the state, spend days there with local people and try and address their grievances,” the Trinamul chief said. This is for the first time that the TMC has come up with a helpline number and a website to reach out to the people.

The TMC’s tally in the last LS polls came down to 22 from 34 in 2014. On the other hand, the saffron party raised its vote share to an unprecedented 40.5 per cent bagging 18 seats.

When the media asked her if the attempted “makeover” was the brainwave of poll strategist Prashant Kishor, drafted by Miss Banerjee for furbishing the party’s image after the LS poll reverses, the chief minister shot back : “Why should I tell you about our internal matter. Do you disclose your internal matter to us ? Such a question is improper.”

When asked whether the programme was launched with an eye on the 2021 state Assembly polls, Miss Banerjee said : “Assembly polls are still 20 months away. It is not aimed at the state elections.”

When the media further asked her whether her party was going “the corporate way”, Miss Banerjee said it was being “modernised.”

Buoyed by its spectacular show, BJP leaders have been asserting that their aim now is to dislodge the TMC from power. The Trinamul has been in power since 2011 when it ended the CPI(M)-led Left Front’s 34-year-old rule in the state.

A senior TMC leader said, “Prashant Kishor is behind the massive outreach programme. The feedback will be scrutinised by Kishor and his team, who in turn will use it to prepare the party’s strategy and plug the loopholes.”

BJP MP Arjun Singh, who had been a key Trinamul leader till he parted ways and joined the BJP just before the last LS polls, said he had been with Miss Banerjee for about 30 years and she had never been available over phone.

“How is it that she wants to be in direct communication with the people ? The answer is simple. She is scared of the people now and desperate to latch on to power. But, this is her latest bluff and it won’t cut ice with the people,” he said.

Union minister Babul Supriyo said : “The Trinamul Congress under Mamata Banerjee has lost all its credibility. The people voted it to power to usher in change in Bengal destroyed by Left rule. Now, the people want to be liberated from the change brought about by Miss Banerjee who has miserably failed to deliver what she had promised.