TMC likely to increase representation of women in all 3 tiers of Panchayat system

Party sources say Panchayat elections were a litmus test for the ruling dispensation to verify its support bases 

MP | 31 July 2023 : Eyeing the Lok Sabha polls, Trinamool Congress is drawing up a strategy to retain the support of its women voters by increasing their representation in all three tiers of the Panchayat system. 

The Parliamentary elections are crucial to the TMC to increase its seats from Bengal so that it can have a greater say in the newly-formed coalition of 26 

Opposition parties under the banner of I.N.D.I.A. in forming the next government at the Centre. The party is learnt to have begun drawing up strategies to put up a better performance than the 2019 Lok Sabha polls where the BJP, for the first time in Bengal, managed to bag 18 seats, leaving TMC with 22. 

This time, party sources said the Panchayat elections were a litmus test for TMC to verify its support bases. The results of the rural elections in Bengal acted as a booster for the TMC since the difference in vote share with the BJP in the 2021 Assembly elections was 10% but it increased to 30% in the Panchayat elections. 

TMC secured 52% vote share whereas BJP was only able to get 22% of votes, party sources highlighted. Keeping these statistics in mind, it is learnt that the TMC feels its trump card for the next Parliamentary election will be the women supporters. In a bid to retain their votes, the party, it is learnt, will be increasing their representation through appointments in vital positions in the three-tier Panchayat system. 

This will be done by going beyond the already 50% reserved seats for women. The Panchayat boards, it is expected, will be formed by the first two weeks of August. Women will get seats in all three levels — Zilla Parishad, Gram Panchayat and Panchayat Samitis. 

The party is of the opinion that the majority of women’s votes in the 2021 Assembly elections went to TMC while the same got repeated in the rural elections. It is this vote share that the party wishes to retain. 

A party insider felt that it is the result of beneficiary schemes floated for women by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, especially Lakshmir Bhandar, which has led the womenfolk to repose their faith in the Trinamool Congress. 

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/tmc-likely-to-increase-representation-of-women-in-all-3-tiers-of-panchayat-system-527663