Mamata prepares nominees for counting- asked the candidates to remain ultra-vigilant

She urged patience and instructed the leaders not to get demoralised after the first trends, which would comprise postal ballots that might go to BJP

Mamata Banerjee: File picture

Meghdeep Bhattacharyya   |  TT  |  Calcutta   | 01.05.21: Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee held a videoconference with the party’s leaders and candidates and told them that she was confident of a two-third majority, but warned them against complacency at the counting stage as the BJP couldn’t be trusted.

The chief minister asked the candidates to remain ultra-vigilant and stay the course, from the early hours of the morning till the very end of the counting process, irrespective of the trends or the results.

“There is no doubt in my mind that our party will retain power for the third consecutive term with every possibility of considerably improving the tally given by every exit poll…. We are confidently looking at a two-third majority,” she was quoted as saying by a leader who attended the virtual meeting.

According to him, Mamata urged patience and strictly instructed the leaders and nominees not to get demoralised after the first trends, which would comprise postal ballots that might go to the BJP.

This was the first such exercise since her party was formed as Mamata was “extremely suspicious” of the BJP and the poll panel’s intentions.

Sources in Trinamul said the chief minister was apprehensive that the modifications in rules and procedure for counting were aimed at helping the BJP manipulate results in close contests which she thought were many this time.

The chief minister, said Trinamul sources, gave specific instructions for several districts in the Jungle Mahal and north Bengal, where the BJP had done very well in the Lok Sabha polls of 2019 and was expected to perform impressively this time, too.

The sources said the leadership advised the nominees against assuming that the BJP was going to do well as in 2019 in districts such as Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar and Alipurduar in north and Bankura, Jhargram, Purulia and West Midnapore in the Jungle Mahal.

“In these districts, the BJP could be leading at the start, but do not get demoralised and do not leave the counting centres. Even in the seats where the BJP did well in 2019, most are coming back to Trinamul. So, the counting for those seats should not be abandoned by our party,” Mamata was quoted as saying at the meeting.

A Trinamul vice-president said the chief minister also advised the leaders against consumption of food, beverage, cigarettes, paan or anything else that was given by someone else. “Nothing edible given by anybody else, be it the Election Commission or the BJP, or anybody else, must even be touched…. Trust nobody other than your own at the counting centres,” she was quoted as saying.

The chief minister mentioned two internal helplines of Trinamul, to be directly monitored by a centralised control room reporting to her. The helplines are for all the people from the party directly involved with the counting process to immediately report problems from the counting centres.

“Stay from the very beginning. Stay till the very end…. Sunday is the final day of our war to save Bengal. Stay the course. Victory awaits,” she was quoted as saying.