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regular-article-logo Saturday, 04 May 2024

District Trinamul Congress leaders in north Bengal start exercise to estimate votes received by party

Booth-level reports on party's performance

Our Correspondent Jalpaiguri Published 21.04.24, 10:22 AM
An all-woman model polling booth at a school in Jalpaiguri on Friday

An all-woman model polling booth at a school in Jalpaiguri on Friday Picture by Biplab Basak

District Trinamool Congress leaders in Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar and Cooch Behar on Saturday started an exercise to estimate votes received by the party.

On Friday, over 56 lakh voters of Cooch Behar, Alipurduars (as the constituency is named) and Jalpaiguri Lok Sabha seats cast their votes. In 2019, the BJP had won the three seats.

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Mahua Gope, the Jalpaiguri district Trinamool president, said on Saturday they sought reports from booth presidents. In all, there are 5,814 booths in these three seats.

“Booth presidents have been asked to submit their reports, including the total number of voters, the number of votes polled and their estimates about the votes our candidate got in each booth. We will collate booth-level data at block and district levels and forward it to the state leadership,” said Gope.

According to Trinamool insiders, booth presidents have been asked to sign the reports.

“On June 4, results will be out. Then, we will tally the booth-level results with the estimates. If there is an abnormal difference in estimates and results, booth presidents concerned will face stern steps, including removal,” said a party functionary.

In 2019, the Jalpaiguri party leadership pooled information from booths, but it wasn’t as coordinated as this time. District Trinamool leaders had then claimed their candidate would win Jalpaiguri by a 2-lakh margin. “But the BJP candidate won with a margin of 1.84 lakh votes,” said a source.

Booth chiefs will cite the tentative number of male and female Trinamool voters in the reports. The reports will reach block party presidents by April 23-24. Then, the district party president will hold a meeting to discuss the reports and observations of other leaders.

“It will also help the party assess the performance of booth presidents and booth committee workers. The party can make appropriate decisions if organisational weakness is noticed in any booth,” said a Trinamool leader of Alipurduar.

The party is also trying to gauge if schemes like Lakshmir Bhandar impacted women and if the party has a support base among Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe voters.

Prakash Chik Baraik, the Alipurduars nominee, said: “Based on these reports, the party can review its campaign plans for the rest 39 seats.”

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