Assembly elections done and dusted, parties are now gearing up for the mega 2024 Lok Sabha battle, with MPs putting special emphasis on their constituencies.
West Bengal’s Diamond Harbour constituency is a crucial one for the Trinamool Congress and sources in the party told News18 that Abhishek Banerjee has started preparing for the polls.
In an effort to reach out to voters, Banerjee has started a programme where his dedicated team will help senior citizens get their pension quickly. Party insiders say over 200 camps have been set up in Diamond Harbour that will facilitate the process to ensure that eligible people can apply for the pension scheme.
As per the data available with TMC, there are around 70,000 eligible people who have applied for the pension in Diamond Harbour alone but have yet to receive it.
Sources say volunteers will not be limited to kiosks but will advertise the initiative throughout the constituency with the help of awareness campaigns. They added that Banerjee has also instructed the volunteers to visit the houses of senior citizens who cannot make it to the camps.
Local leaders say the move comes after the TMC national general secretary, in the recent past, had promised that he would try everything possible so that eligible people could get their pensions from the government.
Sources also told News18 that it was instructed that in case the senior citizens do not receive their pension due to any reason by December 31, Banerjee will start providing financial assistance in phases from January 1 next year.
Sources say Banerjee’s efforts are aimed at keeping up the Diamond Harbour Model. During Covid-19, Banerjee had a key role to play in reducing the infection rate by ensuring massive testing—a feat that came to be known as the Diamond Harbour Model. Initiatives such as a report card every year as well as ‘Ek Dake Abhishek’ (one call Abhishek) further helped strengthen the model, and now Banerjee wants to project his constituency as ideal.
The fight in Diamond Harbour, meanwhile, has become interesting. ISF leader Naushad, a minority face and Bhangar MLA, has said he will contest from the constituency, while the BJP too will target it.
On Banerjee’s pension scheme, BJP general secretary Jagannath Chattopadhyay told News18: “The Union government has two old age schemes. An individual MP can help anyone. We have seen that he has distributed cash on earlier occasions too. Now, in this case if he distributes cash, then he has to say from where he got the same. Otherwise, authorities should investigate this.”
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