By Express News Service
KOLKATA: Amid talks of an internal rift with her heir apparent, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Friday reinstated Abhishek Banerjee as her party’s national general secretary and inducted three others in the party’s national hierarchy.
Former Union finance minister Yashwant Sinha, senior leaders Subrata Bakshi and Chandrima Bhattacharya were made national vice-presidents. The changes were made in the first meeting of the newly formed national working committee convened by Mamata at her residence in Kalighat.
Party insiders said the changes appeared to be a move to clip wings of Abhishek.
‘‘Mamata formed the national working committee dissolving all top-level hierarchy including Abhishek’s portfolio. Earlier, he was the lone representative in the national hierarchy. Today, he was reinstated as the national general secretary but with three new posts created in the national level hierarchy,’’ said a senior TMC leader.
The creation of the three new national-level portfolio is said to be a fallout of the recent developments within the party suggesting growing distance between the TMC supremo and Abhishek.
Sources in the party said Mamata was upset with her nephew, who wanted to field many young faces in the civic polls but his idea was rejected by the party chief.
There was a buzz doing the rounds that Abhishek, who is considered number 2 in the party, had expressed desire to step down and that Mamata was in no mood to dissuade him.
‘‘Abhishek was trying to establish his own impression in the party. The distance between him and Mamata became visible when a section of leaders, known for their proximity to Abhishek, was in favour of fielding young candidates in the civic polls which was turned down by the party supremo,’’ said the TMC leader.
The rift became prominent after Prashant Kishor’s team I-PAC, which was hired on suggestion of Abhishek after the party’s poor show in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, tabled a list of candidates for 107 civic bodies.
‘‘I-PAC uploaded a candidate list without Mamata’s approval. We had to release a second list. It annoyed Mamata, We have already initiated discussions to terminate contract with Kishor’s team,’’ said another TMC leader.
Banerjee’s trusted lieutenant and housing minister Firhad Hakim has been given the charge of coordination between her and the national working committee, while state minister Aroop Biswas has been appointed as the national treasurer.
Rajya Sabha chief whip Sukhendu Shekhar Ray and Lok Sabha MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar are the new party spokespersons of Parliament’s upper and lower houses respectively.
Krishnanagar MP Mahua Moitra has been assigned the job of interacting with the media.
TMC’s Rajya Sabha party leader Derek O’ Brien, who had been serving as the party’s chief national spokesperson, did not feature in the list.
Political observers feel Abhishek’s return as national general secretary, the de-facto number two in the organisation, has sent out a message indicating that he would remain the heir apparent, amid the internal strife between the old guard and the next-generation leadership.
The TMC boss also seems to have mollified some of the old-timers by giving them plum posts in the committee, and thus stifling the growing clamour for ‘one party, one post’ by some of the younger leaders in the party.
Three defectors from the Congress, Sushmita Dev and Subal Bhowmik and Mukul Sangma, have been made TMC’s in-charge of the northeast.
Banerjee has assigned the job of preparing the party’s draft policy on economic and external affairs to her principal chief adviser Amit Mitra and Yashwant Sinha.
Two others leaders have been given the task of managing TMC’s affairs in northern states — Rajeshpati Tripathi in UP and Ashok Tanwar in Haryana.
At a meeting held here prior to the announcement, Banerjee asked everybody in the party to work together, a TMC leader said.
The TMC supremo, during his 25-minute long speech, underlined that the party needs both the experience of old leaders and the energy of the new leaders to further its growth.
“Our party supremo during the meeting clearly said that everybody has to work together as one team. Although the party needs new faces, old leaders are always invaluable assets. No one should forget old is gold,” a senior TMC leader.
During the meet, Banerjee also maintained that social media platforms should be used to propagate the party’s policies and programmes and not to further personal agenda, he said.
“She has also said that TMC is a party of poor people, so everybody has to be humble and shun pomp and luxury,” the leader added.
Banerjee had last week dissolved the erstwhile national office bearers’ committee and the portfolios that came with it, amid a growing internal strife between the old guard and the young leaders.
She then formed a 20-member working committee, packed with party veterans.
Meanwhile, Krishna Chakraborty, Ram Chakraborty and Bidhan Upadhyay have been selected as the next mayor of Bidhannagar, Chandernagore and Asansol towns respectively.
Gautam Deb’s name as Siliguri mayor was announced earlier in the week.
Sabyasachi Dutta, the former mayor of Bidhannagar who made his back to TMC from BJP after assembly polls, has been made the chairman of Bidhannangar municipal corporation.
Polls to these municipal corporations were held on February 12.
The TMC bagged all four civic bodies with overwhelming majority.
(With PTI Inputs)
