Learning lessons from earlier defeats, Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee issued guidelines for Panchayat polls, instructing party workers not to intimidate the opposition, sources said.

Abhishek has already started meetings in stronghold areas of BJP like North Bengal and Jangal Mahal.

In an internal meeting with party functionaries and district leaders, Abhishek said there was an allegation of large-scale violence during the 2018 Panchayat polls and also that the opposition was not allowed to submit their nomination.

Sources inside the party said that he also stated that the Panchayat election 2023 will be different in comparison to 2018.

The BJP got 18 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha and people in the party and experts say that BJP got so many seats due to violence in 2018.

According to sources inside the party, Abhishek said, “MLA and MP fight in a democratic way, the same thing will happen in Panchayat. Nobody should try to win uncontested. If somebody did something like that, he will damage the party that will not be entertained. Due to 2018, we got fewer seats in 2019. This time, we will not allow this.”

On the TMC candidate list, sources said Abhishek has cleared that people with a corrupted background will not get tickets and Mamata Banerjee will take the final call.

Abhishek has instructed workers to take state government development work to people and prepare ground workers and supporters to write letters to Central Government for not releasing its share of money for the state.

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