Kolkata, Aug 5 (IANS) Trinamool Congress National General Secretary and the newly appointed leader of the party’s Parliamentary team in Lok Sabha, Abhishek Banerjee, on Tuesday, directed his party leaders at all levels to chant the “Jai Bangla” slogan when the latter come across any BJP leader anywhere within the state.
He gave this direction to the Trinamool Congress workers at a virtual meeting earlier in the afternoon, which was attended by all elected party MPs, legislators, heads of municipal corporations, municipalities and panchayat bodies, all members of the party’s state committee, chiefs of the party-affiliated mass organisations, and all the district presidents and chairmen of the party.
Party insiders, who attended the virtual meeting, said that the opinion of Banerjee was that since BJP leaders got irritated hearing the “Jai Bangla” slogan, chanting that slogan after coming across them would be the best possible protest against the alleged attack on the Bengali language and alleged harassment of Bengali-speaking people in the BJP-ruled states.
While addressing the Trinamool Congress annual Martyrs’ Day rally in Kolkata on July 21 this year, Abhishek Banerjee said that the BJP will be compelled to chant the “Jai Bangla” slogan reportedly coined by the party after the West Bengal Assembly election scheduled to be held next year.
Although Trinamool Congress leadership claims to have coined the “Jai Bangla” slogan, there are controversies over this claim, as critics claim that that this particular slogan had been traditionally chanted by the leaders and supporters of Bangladesh’s former ruling party, Awami League, since the slogan was first chanted by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the architect behind the emergence of Bangladesh as an Independent nation after erstwhile East Pakistan was liberated from Pakistan.
At the virtual meeting on Tuesday afternoon, the Trinamool Congress National General Secretary also told the party leaders to take it as a challenge to prevent the BJP and the Union government from deleting several genuine names from the voters’ list in West Bengal through the special intensive revision initiated by the Election Commission of India (ECI).
He also directed the party leaders to organise booth-level meetings and interact with people to encourage them to participate in a mass movement on this issue.
He stressed uniting the people of West Bengal against the BJP on these issues.
–IANS
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