Didi ke Bolo is an attempt to get voters to tell their Maan ki Baat to the TMC supremo.
If it was Chai Pe Charcha that captured imagination of crores of Indians before 2014 catapulting Narendra Modi to the post of Prime Minister, Prashant Kishor has come out with a similar interactive programme for Mamata Banerjee.
With her modest sarees and sandals, Mamata Banerjee has always believed in being people's Didi. But somewhere down the line, even with her humble demeanour, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has become distant from the common people.
Such a great initiative by Ms. Mamata Banerjee. Glad to be the citizen #WestBengal WestBengal #DidiKeBolo
— Didi Ke Bolo (@DidiKeBolo) July 29, 2019
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TMC in the quest of rapid expansion didn't exactly give much thought to quality control and in the process the party has become a bloated structure where the top echelons often don't know what the ground level workers are doing.
Read: The TMC are a-changin'
This has obviously led to disconnect with the masses, something BJP has capitalised. While Mamata Banerjee learning from her humbling Lok Sabha election results is looking to curb ground-level corruption by cracking down on cut money.
But with 'Didi ke Bolo', which means 'Tell Didi', the goal is to strike a personal connect between Mamata Banerjee and the voters. The aim is to encash on Mamata's charisma to pass the stern 2021 Assembly election test and the imprints of the wonder boy from Bihar, Prashant Kishor is for all to see in this grand outreach plan. Didi ke Bolo is an attempt to get voters to tell their Maan ki Baat to the TMC supremo.
1. Why 'Didi ke Bolo'?
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According to many political experts, the way Left organisation suffered a steady rot over the last 34 years, it was much pronounced for TMC within its two terms. Thus, the need of the hour was to recalibrate the party organisation.
In Didi's own words, it is a step towards modernisation of TMC. Over next 100 days, 1000 TMC functionaries will reach out to over 10,000 villages and urban habitats.
The aim is to stop the expanding BJP in its tracks, particularly in rural Bengal.
2. Will Prashant formula work?
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After being hired by TMC to revive the party after electoral reverses, Prashant Kishor held a series of meetings with TMC leadership and the second and third rung leaders.
The strategy devised is to get back to the basics and work on the biggest USP of Mamata Banerjee, her easy relatability as the street fighter with people of Bengal.
The Mamata Bengalis loved is the problem solver, someone who clicked with the masses. She listened to problems and even took negative criticism bravely. That had been replaced by a much more opaque brand of politics where dissent is brutally crushed and every criticism is a 'shorojantro'.
'Didi ke bolo' more than anything else is revamping the brand TMC championed by Mamata Banerjee that Didi is just a phone call away. In a way, it seeks to energise and revamp the brand Didi, someone who has the means to solve any problem.
It looks to cut down the intermediaries so that voters can have their Mann ki Baat with the West Bengal CM.
3. What is Didi ke bolo?
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TMC press release says, "Didi Ke Bolo is a unique initiative by Mamata Didi, to provide a platform to every citizen of West Bengal to directly connect with her. Using this platform, people can reach out to her, by simply calling on 9137091370 or by logging onto www.didikebolo.com, with their suggestions and problems. Thus, with this platform she is just a call away from every citizen of West Bengal."
Alongside this, TMC representatives will be going to nook and corner of West Bengal to interact with people. Their target is an ambitious coverage of 80% households to get feedback about work done, to listen to their grievances and to sort out their issues.
