The Trinamool Congress on Saturday launched its new slogan for the upcoming West Bengal state assembly polls, due in April-May.

Extending the narrative of calling main opposition party BJP outsiders and branding itself as locals, the party chose ‘Bangla nijer meye kei chay [Bengal wants its own daughter]’.

The insider-outsider debate has been at the forefront of the fierce war of words being fought by TMC and BJP. The ruling party has been ruthless at its attempt to build the perception that saffron brigade was on “election tourism” and would fail to do good for the people and protect the state’s rich cultural heritage.

The BJP, on the other hand, has been effortlessly trying to portray itself as the rightful alternative to TMC by seemingly embracing the Bengali culture and tradition.

From giving the election promise of building ‘Sonar Bangla’ to the party’s central leaders going for lunch to poor and rural households, BJP has tried to add a Bengali shade to its usual high decibel campaign of Hindutva and communal polarisation.

However, it has been a bumpy ride with the TMC pointing out many times about BJP’s fault and failure in understanding the Bengali tradition and culture, giving itself the fuel to continue the insider-outsider brawl.

With the slogan launch on Friday, the Mamata Banerjee-led party has now taken an official stance of fighting the much-talked-about election, banking on regionalism.

Invoking the Bengali pride and ethno-nationalist views can also be seen as a counter to BJP’s hyper-nationalistic brand of politics.

The slogan of ‘Bengal wants its own daughter’ is believed to be an attempt to appeal to the state’s women voters as well, who now stand at over 3.5 crore or 49% of total electorate in Bengal.

Scores of hoarding with the slogan and party supremo Mamata Banerjee’s photo has been put up across Kolkata and in and around the party headquarters off EM Bypass.

“The people of the state want their own daughter who has been by their side for the last several years as their chief minister. We don”t want outsiders to call the shots in Bengal,” TMC secretary-general Partha Chatterjee said.