Six days after Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson Mamata Banerjee dissolved all posts in the party, including that of its national general secretary, which was held by the Diamond Harbour MP and Ms. Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee, he was on Friday reappointed to the post at a meeting of the party’s newly constituted working committee. The meeting was chaired by Ms. Banerjee at her Kalighat residence with all key functionaries of the party present.
While the most important announcement was the return of Mr. Abhishek Banerjee as the party’s national general secretary, amidst speculations of a tussle between him and the party chairperson, the West Bengal Chief Minister also tried to bring in checks and balances in the party by appointing three national vice presidents. Former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha, senior Trinamool Congress leader Subrata Bakshi, and State Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya, have been appointed as vice presidents of the party.
State’s Minister Aroop Biswas has been appointed as the party’s treasurer. Senior party leader and Mayor of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation Firhad Hakim has been made the coordinator of the working committee.
A 20-member working committee was constituted on February 12, which included Ms. Mamata Banerjee and Mr. Abhishek Banerjee. On Saturday, representatives from other States like Sushmita Dev from Assam, Subal Bhowmick from Tripura, Luizinho Faleiro from Goa, Mukul Sangma from Meghalaya, and Ashok Tanwar from Haryana were invited to the meeting of working committee.
The party also specified the names of its spokespersons. Sukhendu Sekhar Roy will be the TMC’s national spokesperson. Mr. Roy, along with two other spokespersons — Mahua Moitra and Kakuli Ghosh Dastidar — will address mediapersons in Delhi on a regular basis.
A committee of party leaders — Ms. Dev, Mr. Bhowmick and Mr. Sangma — will look after the affairs of the party in the northeast. Another committee comprising Amit Mitra and Mr. Sinha will prepare policies relating to the party’s economic and external affairs. Sources in the TMC said that Ms. Banerjee emphasised the coming together of the old and new leadership in the party at the meeting. “Old is gold,” she said.
Over the past few weeks, differences over the giving of tickets for civic polls and the role of I-PAC political strategist Prashant Kishor were coming to the fore in the party. Ms. Banerjee was on February 2 elected unopposed as the party’s chairperson in the party’s internal organisation elections. The developments over the past few weeks, which include dissolving all posts and reconstituting new posts, indicate that the Trinamool Congress’ organisation, and its rank and file, is fully in Ms. Banerjee’s grip. She set up the party after breaking from the Congress in 1998.
Mayors announced
After the meeting, the TMC announced names of mayors for three municipal corporations. Krishna Chakraborty will remain the Mayor of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, and Sabyasachi Dutta, who recently parted ways with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to return to the TMC, will be its Chairperson. Bidhan Upadhyay will be Mayor of Asansol Municipal Corporation, and Ram Chakraborty will be the Mayor of Chandernagore Municipal Corporation. The party chairperson announced Gautam Deb as the mayor of Siliguri Municipal Corporation. Ms. Banerjee’s preference for old loyalists is clear in the selection of mayors as well. Polls to these four municipal corporations were held on February 12 and the TMC won them with overwhelming majority.
