Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has once again reposed her faith in her nephew, MP Abhishek Banerjee, retaining him in his post as national general secretary of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) during the party’s restructuring, amidst reports of a rift between the old guard and the new.
Six days after she had dissolved all existing posts within the party, and constituted a new, 20-member national working committee, Mamata Friday chaired a meeting of the committee at her Kolkata residence. The new designations for party officials were announced, with Abhishek keeping the key post that he had received in July 2021 after the TMC’s landslide victory in the West Bengal assembly election.
The rumours of a rift between Mamata and her nephew were centred around two issues — Abhishek’s campaign to limit party leaders to ‘one person, one post’, and the level of involvement that the Indian Political Action Committee (IPAC) associated with Prashant Kishor has in the TMC’s functioning.
The TMC will now have three vice presidents, including Subrata Bakshi, Yashwant Sinha, and new entrant Chandrima Bhattacharya. Bhattacharya, who is also a state minister, had last week raised direct allegations against IPAC for using her social media account to post in support of the idea of ‘one man, one post’ without her consent. IPAC denied the claim.
MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy will be TMC’s national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha spokesperson, a role formerly played by Derek O’Brien. Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar will be the new Lok Sabha spokesperson.
Newly inducted leaders from other states also found a mention, with Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev, who is from Assam, former Meghalaya CM Mukul Sangma, and former Tripura MLA Subal Bhowmik put in charge of organisation in the North-East. Senior leader Firhad Hakim will be party coordinator and Aroop Biswas the treasurer; both are ministers in the state government.
Abhishek back in power
Abhishek Banerjee, a two-term MP from Diamond Harbour, was formerly in charge of the party’s youth wing. His elevation in 2021 was seen as the anointing of a successor, and party leaders started looking at him as Mamata’s heir apparent.
Abhishek had played a key role in last year’s assembly election, from campaigning against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to recruiting political aide Prashant Kishor, and was made national general secretary after the polls.
Since then, he has set out to expand the TMC’s national footprint by spearheading the party’s campaign in Tripura, followed by Goa. With the party making its debut in this year’s Goa assembly election — voting took place Monday — Abhishek had been camping in the state since December.
The MP has been praised for Covid management in his constituency, with his ‘Diamond Harbour model’ being credited with bringing the positivity rate there down to 1 per cent when West Bengal was grappling with the third wave.
(Edited by Rohan Manoj)
Also read: Mamata leaves Congress out as she dials Opposition leaders for meeting of non-NDA CMs