Mamata builds poach shield for MLAs ... Monday’s meeting would be held with the objectives of ring-fencing and strategising with MLAs

TT, 2 June 2019 Calcutta: Mamata Banerjee will hold a meeting on Monday with her party’s MLAs amid public claims of the BJP attempting to engineer a slew of defections.

The meeting, apparently a stock-taking exercise after the results, will be the first such session exclusively for Trinamul members of the Assembly in recent memory.

The chief minister, who has already conducted two meetings with the senior leadership to assess what went wrong in the general election, has initiated some corrective measures. But Monday’s meeting, said sources in her party, would be held with the objectives of ring-fencing and strategising with the MLAs.

“Perhaps, this is the first time she will hold a meeting specifically with all MLAs…. It appears she wants to ensure none of the remaining MLAs joins the BJP,” said a Trinamul leader. The meeting will take place in state secretariat Nabanna.

Trinamul insiders said the BJP’s poaching operations, spearheaded by Mukul Roy, are likely to feature prominently in the talks.

“She may admonish some leaders, knowing they have been in touch with Roy and others to explore the prospect of defection,” said a source.

Trinamul leaders said they were aware Roy and his team had been working to ensure major defections from two vital districts of North and South 24-Parganas, which have 33 and 31 Assembly seats, respectively, besides five Lok Sabha seats each.

According to them, the BJP also remains focused on Jungle Mahal where the party has grown considerably in recent years.

“Didi is likely to focus her attention on the MLAs from those regions,” said a Trinamul leader.

The BJP got leads in 121 Assembly segments — the Congress has taken leads in nine — out of 294 in the general election. There are many Trinamul MLAs in whose segments the BJP secured big leads. The BJP was ahead even in the Assembly segments of 15 out of 45 ministers in Mamata’s cabinet.

“This is a cause for serious concern. The chief minister will, perhaps, seek explanation from the MLAs on their failure to give leads. She has some assessment of her own, on the basis of her detailed analysis of the results. She wants to confirm her findings with the MLAs,” said a senior party leader.

“She firmly believes 58 of the Assembly segments in which the BJP got slender leads of 5,000 or less votes are easily recoverable and would prioritise them,” the leader added.

Sources said the meeting could be a major initiative to ascertain the actual reasons on the ground for the party’s poor show in many areas despite a series of development and welfare initiatives.