By Anirban Sinha Roy, Sujay Ghosh: With the Trinamool Congress’s ‘Jono Sanjog Yatra’ underway in the state, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is also planning a foot march named ‘Yuva Panchayat Padyatra’. The saffron party has not specified when the yatra will commence, but has decided it will cover 200 assembly constituencies of the state in a 21-day program, sources said. The marches by TMC and BJP come in light of the upcoming panchayat elections in West Bengal.

BJP’s Yuva Morcha state president Indranil Khan will reportedly lead the foot march. BJP Yuva Morcha All India President Tejaswi Surya is scheduled to attend this programme, along with all the state leaders, MPs and MLAs. Key Bengal BJP leaders like Sukanta Majumdar and Suvendu Adhikari are expected to be part of the march.

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On March 25, TMC General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee started the ‘Jono Sanjog Yatra’ from Cooch Behar. After completing North Bengal, the journey has now entered South Bengal. The program is scheduled to end in the third week of May in South 24 Parganas.

TMC’s two-month grassroots journey is underway in Bengal, titled ‘Trinamoole Nabo Jowar’. As the Jono Sonjog Yatra entered day 22, Abhishek Banerjee tweeted, “Your trust in #TrinamooleNaboJowar encourages us to overcome all challenges and keep working towards empowering our people by strengthening grassroots democracy.”

Notably, West Bengal BJP is reportedly planning to start the ‘Yuva Panchayat Padyatra’ as TMC’s tour nears its end. The saffron party’s foot march is expected to end in the middle of June.

To prepare for the foot march, BJP Yuva Morcha first conducted a relationship campaign in the border villages, after which the village relations campaign started from Jalpaiguri. The march will commence after 500 villages of the 50 rural assembly constituencies are visited.

West Bengal BJP Youth President Indranil Khan said, “The TMC launched its Navajoyar long after we started village relations campaigns.” He also said there is a difference between TMC and BJP’s youth cell programs.

Indranil said, “What Trinamool is doing is actually a survey of the party’s situation and trying to understand people’s attitude towards corruption. That too is being managed by hired professionals. However, our program will be innovative and will be led by our locals and leaders.”

The foot march is expected to cover a distance of 5,000 km, during which the aim will be to reach around 5,000 villages. Door-to-door outreach programs will also take place, for which 42 committees have been constituted.

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