TMC to make opposition to CAA, NRC its main poll plank in the WB civic polls

The ruling Trinamool Congess on Friday decided to continue its protests against CAA and NRC and will make them the party's main poll plank in the coming civic polls in West Bengal.

The civic polls will be held in 107 municipalities across the state and in Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) in April-May 2020. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Friday held a closed door meeting with party functionaries during the day and discussed TMC's strategy for the civic polls.

According to party sources, during the meeting Banerjee, who is the TMC supremo, asked its leaders to intensify campaign against NRC and CAA across the state and reach out to the people with the developmental work it had done in the last eight years.

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"It has been decided that our protest against CAA will continue till it is revoked. We will carry out door-to-door campaign against both CAA and NRC and will be our poll plank in the coming civic poll," said a senior TMC leader on condition of anoynymity. TMC is at the forefront of the opposition to the contentious CAA, proposed NRC and the NPR.

The party has already conducted a survey to assess its support base and the penetration of BJP in the state. The survey will play a key role in adopting strategy and in the selection of candidates for the civic polls, sources said. The civic polls, in which about 60 per cent voters of the state will be eligible to take part, are being tipped as the "mini assembly election" ahead of the crucial 2021 state polls.

The polls have assumed significance as the BJP has emerged as a tough challenger to the ruling Trinamool Congress by making deep inroads in the state and pushing the opposition Congress and Left Front to distant third and fourth spots respectively.

TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee said the party will organise human chains in various parts of the state to protest against the contentious law. "Our party supremeo will conduct three rallies in February to protest against CAA and NRC," he added. The BJP had bagged 18 of the 42 seats, just four short of the TMC in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The TMC's tally had come down from 34 in 2014 to 22 seats. Following its poor show, the TMC has roped in poll strategist Prashant Kishor and his team I-PAC to evolve strategies ahead of the assembly elections in 2021.

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