Siliguri, April 21 -- Abhishek Banerjee, national general secretary of All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) will hold a public meeting in Siliguri sub-divisional area on April 23. District Trinamool leaders have already started their preparations, informed Papiya Ghosh, president of Darjeeling District Trinamool Congress (Plains) in a Press conference, in Siliguri, on Sunday. The public meeting will be held at Uttara Ground in Naxalbari Block under Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad in support of Gopal Lama, TMC-nominated candidate of Darjeeling Lok Sabha (LS) constituency.

"Abhishek Banerjee's words will boost our morale. People and party workers of Darjeeling district plains will be participating in the public meeting. We have already started preparations. About 70,000 people will gather at the meeting," said Papiya Ghosh. The second phase of Lok Sabha elections will be held in Darjeeling on April 26. After announcing the name of Gopal Lama as a candidate for Darjeeling LS seat on March 10, the Darjeeling district TMC leaders have started campaigning in almost every nook and corner of the constituency.

Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee also came to Siliguri and took out a rally supporting Gopal Lama. Meanwhile, Indian National Trinamool Trade Union Congress (INTTUC) campaigned for Gopal Lama in Siliguri. On Saturday, the district committee of INTTUC took out a rally from Mallaguri to Hasmi Chawk in presence of Ritabrata Banerjee, state president of the organisation.

Nirjal Dey, president of INTTUC Darjeeling district committee was also present in the rally. "Earlier, BJP said in their manifesto that they will spend Rs 1000 crore for tea gardens but they did not do it. They did not open a single closed tea garden.

They did corruption with the money of Provident Funds of tea garden labourers. Meanwhile, the Chief Minister gave houses through the Tea Sundari project. She opened closed tea gardens, Pattas and free rations are being given. This time the workers of every garden will vote for the grassroots," said Ritabarata.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.