Mamata's north trip to begin today

AVIJIT SINHA, TT, 18 Nov 2019, Siliguri: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee will be in north Bengal on a three-day trip starting from Monday.

She will visit three districts and is scheduled to hold administrative review meetings of Malda and South Dinajpur districts.

This is the second visit of Mamata to the region in recent times. After the Lok Sabha polls, the chief minister had stayed away from north Bengal for around five months.

Mamata, who will arrive in Bagdogra, will take a chopper to reach Cooch Behar. There, she will visit the Madanmohan Temple Complex to witness the Rash Utsav and the Rashmela Ground where a fair is being hosted.

As the administrative review meetings have been lined up, it is expected that she will issue some specific instructions to officials and elected representatives.

Also, there are chances that she would meet Trinamul leaders of these districts.

Her party had faced a debacle in the Lok Sabha polls in north Bengal and now, elec- tions are due in a number of municipalities.

In the Parliament elections held earlier this year, the BJP had bagged seven of eight seats in the region. North Bengal has 22 civic bodies and 54 Assembly seats.

"In South Dinajpur and Malda, the chief minister might play the development card again to stop the BJP from augmenting its support. But another key issue that she needs to address is acute infighting within her party. In both these districts and even in Cooch Behar, factionalism was to blame mainly for Trinamul's debacle in the Lok Sabha elections," said a political analyst.

On November 19, Mamata will reach Gangarampur in South Dinajpur to attend the review meeting. From there, she will go to Malda.

Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar will also be in Siliguri on Monday. He will inaugurate the eighth edition of the All India Police Archery Championship hosted by the Sashatra Seema Ball (SSB) at its Siliguri frontier headquarters in Ranidanga..