india

Updated: Aug 30, 2019 08:15 IST

West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC)’s public outreach programme Didike Bolo has generated more than a million responses over the past one month, the party announced on Thursday.

The programme, designed by political strategist Prashant Kishor’s outfit Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), was launched by West Bengal chief minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee on July 29, about two months after the party suffered a major blow in the Lok Sabha elections.

On Thursday, the TMC claimed the Didike Bolo or Tell Didi helpline number received 8,00,635 phone calls, and 1,99,715 people reached out using the campaign’s website.

Most of those who approached the Didike Bolo platform expressed grievances over a wide range of issues.

“About 42% of the people registered their grievances, while 32% gave suggestions and 22% left appreciatory messages,” the TMC said in a statement.

“I am humbled with the overwhelming response of the people on the @DidiKeBolo platform. In the last 30 days, over 10 lakh people have reached out to us with their words of appreciation for the initiative, valuable suggestions & grievances,” Mamata Banerjee tweeted on Thursday evening.

In a second tweet, she wrote, “I thank each one for their support and acknowledgement. We take note of their valuable suggestions and are committed to working overtime to resolve their grievances to an extent possible in an expeditious manner.”

Opposition parties were not as impressed.

“Didike Bolo campaign, the CM’s appeal to return cut money and her instructions to police to stop extortion are part of the same desperate package of gimmicks. None of these will work. People can read gimmicks,” the BJP’s state executive member Shishir Bajoria said.

“If everything has to be brought to Didi’s attention, what is the role of other elected public representatives (of the ruling party)?” Left legislator Sujan Chakraborty asked.

Didike Bolo had a two-fold approach. Didi, or Mamata Banerjee, could be directly approached using a telephone helpline and an email ID. In the other part of the campaign, often referred to as ‘Gramey Chalo’ (Go to the villages) elected public representatives were to visit villages, stay overnight, listen to people’s grievances and leave the village the next day after hoisting the party’s flag at a prominent spot.

“As part of the on-ground outreach of ‘Didike Bolo’, close to 500 Trinamool leaders conducted ‘Jan Sangjog Sabha’ and stayed the night in 1,022 villages,” the press statement issued by the party said.

The target of the on-ground outreach was to cover 10,000 villages in 100 days. The party also claimed that 214 people in distress reached out to the ‘Didike Bolo’ campaign, out of which 161 cases were resolved on priority.

Among those who received help was Mohammad Firoz, a resident of Mal in Jalpaiguri district of north Bengal.

“My sister, who was pregnant, needed to be urgently transferred from Jalpaiguri district hospital to North Bengal Medical College and Hospital, about 50 kilometres away, but I failed to get a single ambulance despite trying for two hours. I then called the Didike Bolo helpline and an ambulance reached in half an hour,” Firoz said over the phone.