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The ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal is planning to take its annual flagship show \u2013 the Martyr\u2019s Day rally on July 21 \u2013 to the booth level this time to avoid any large gathering during the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be a mix-and-match of ground level programs followed by a virtual address by party chief Mamata Banerjee,\u201d said a senior Trinamool Congress leader.<\/p>\n
West Bengal chief minister and the party\u2019s supremo Mamata Banerjee held a meeting with her party colleagues on Friday to decide on the campaign strategy for the annual event.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile small gatherings would be held at the booth level by leaders and party workers at on that day from 1 pm to 2 pm following all social distancing norms, Banerjee will virtually address the leaders and workers from 2 pm to 3 pm,\u201d said another leader, who attended a meeting.<\/p>\n
This year, the July 21 rally is being perceived to be all the more important because Mamata could lay down the road map for the crucial Assembly polls next year.<\/p>\n
Banerjee had earlier said that this year\u2019s Martyr\u2019\u2019s Day programme would be different in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak and the subsequent restrictions on social gatherings across the country.<\/p>\n
The July 21 Martyrs\u2019 Day Rally has over the years become the Trinamool Congress\u2019 flagship political event and is organized to commemorate the police firing in the state capital on July 21, 1993, in which 13 people were killed during a demonstration by the West Bengal Youth Congress. Banerjee was leading that demonstration.<\/p>\n
The state\u2019\u2019s ruling Trinamool Congress observes July 21 as Martyr\u2019s Day every year in remembrance of the 13 people shot by the police in Kolkata during a rally organised by the state Youth Congress under Mamata Banerjee\u2019s leadership in 1993, demanding that voter\u2019s identity cards be made the sole required document for casting votes.<\/p>\n
The TMC\u2019s biggest political adversary, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has already gone virtual with Union home minister Amit Shah holding an onlinel rally on June 9 to address party workers and supporters in Bengal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe path of holding mega rallies virtually was shown by the BJP. Now they are following us. But it won\u2019t be possible for them to organise it on such a mega scale as we did,\u201d said Sayantan Basu, general secretary of the BJP\u2019s unit in Bengal.<\/p>\n
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