Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee releases the party’s poll manifesto in Kolkata on March 20, 2026.
| Photo Credit: ANI
The Trinamool Congress has promised to bring medical care to the doorsteps of voters in West Bengal, as part of 10 commitments highlighted in its poll manifesto released by party chairperson and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday (March 20, 2026), just a month before the Assembly election.
This promise of duare chikitsa (doorstep medical care) is a follow-up to previous schemes by the Trinamool Congress government to provide duare sarkar and duare ration (doorstep governance and foodgrains), in a bid to decentralise government benefits.
Ms. Banerjee also vowed to create seven new districts in West Bengal to ease administration in the State.
Women, youth, elders
The 10 commitments include the much publicised Lakshmir Bhandar scheme, whose entitlements to 2.4 crore poor women were hiked by ₹500 per month in last month’s State budget, and the newer Banglar Yuva Sathi scheme for unemployed youth aged between 21 and 40 years, which has already recieved 80 lakh applicants.
“We provide ₹1,500 per month to women under Lakshmir Bhandar. This comes to ₹18,000 a year. Similarly ₹1,500 per month under Yuva Sathi will continue with other scholarships,” Ms. Banerjee said, releasing the manifesto at her residence in south Kolkata’s Kalighat.
Uninterrupted old age pension support to all existing beneficiaries is also a new initiative in the manifesto.
Vows support for landless farmers
The Trinamool Congress chairperson promised a pucca home to every family, with a slogan of “nischit abasan (assured housing)” and clean piped drinking water under the promise of “ghore ghore nal (a tap for every household)”.
She also promised that if her party returns to power in the State for a fourth term, it will propose a ₹30,000 crore agriculture budget to support landless farmers and boost the agrarian economy.
Other promises by the Trinamool supremo included upgrading industrial infrastructure so that the State emerges as a gateway of trade in eastern India, and holistic infrastructure upgradation of all government schools. On the industry front, she claimed that the State has emerged as a cement and leather hub, and added 1.5 crore people working in the MSME sector.
‘Colourful dreams’
The Chief Minister said that the manifesto has been printed in six different languages, using the slogan ‘Sobar janye dorkar Trinamool sarkar (Trinamool government for everyone)’. She also ridiculed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s slogan ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’ on development for all, claiming that in reality, it has turned out to be ‘Sabka Vinash (disaster for all).
Bharatiya Janta Party State president Samik Bhattacharya termed the promises in the Trinamool manifesto as “colourful dreams”. Criticising the duare chikitsa scheme, he highlighted issues in government hospitals and the accident at RG Kar Medical College where a man died inside the lift on Friday (March 20, 2026).
Published – March 20, 2026 06:07 pm IST
