By PTI
KOLKATA: Amid a perceived generational battle in the party, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday reconstituted the West Bengal state committee, packing it mainly with old-timers loyal to her.
Banerjee made freshly minted Jaiprakash Majumdar who switched over from the BJP to the TMC this afternoon a state vice-president.
Cautioning the loose cannons within the TMC, she said those who violate the party discipline would be expelled after two warnings.
Banerjee, also the chief minister of the state, reappointed Subrata Bakshi as the party’s state president and Partha Chatterjee as the secretary-general.
Banerjee’s trusted lieutenants and ministers Firhad Hakim and Aroop Biswas have been appointed as two of the 19 general secretaries of the state unit.
Hakim also has been given the charge of coordination between Banerjee and the national working committee, while Biswas has been made the national treasurer.
Senior leaders such as Amit Mitra, Manas Bhunia, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, Derek O’ Brien, Shatabdi Roy and actor Dev are among the 20 vice-presidents named by the party.
Former Maoist backed tribal leader Chhatradhar Mahato has been reappointed as one of the secretaries of the party.
Chandrima Bhattacharya, who has been given the charge of the finance department with the rank of minister of state, was retained as the state president of the TMC women’s wing.
Leader of the TMC party in Lok Sabha, Sudip Bandopadhyay, was given charge of the party’s organisation in North Kolkata.
“The new state committee has more or less the same members (of the earlier panel) except for a few new additions,” Banerjee said.
The development came within a month after she constituted the new national office bearers’ team, packing it mainly with old-timers, mostly her loyalists.
Although she had reappointed her nephew Abhishek Banerjee as TMC national general secretary, sending out a message that he would remain the heir apparent, Banerjee has also mollified the old-timers by giving them plum posts in the committee, and thus stifling the growing clamour for ‘one person, one post’ by some of the younger leaders in the party.
Appointing one leader to multiple posts both at the state and national level, Banerjee also sent a message that she is not keen on implementing the ‘one person, one post’ in the party.
“It is a mix of old and new leaders. We all have to work together to further strengthen the party in days to come,” Partha Chatterjee said.
The TMC supremo, during his 40-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.
“All of us have to work together. Those who think they can go scot-free by violating the party discipline would be proved wrong. If you violate party discipline, you would be first cautioned, then show-caused, and on the third occasion, you would be expelled,” she said.
Referring to a section of leaders supporting independent candidates in the just concluded civic polls, the TMC chief said they are harming the prospects of the party.
“We have already alerted them. If they think they are bigger than the party, they would be expelled,” she said.
Banerjee also asked TMC MLAs to be present during the ongoing budget session in the assembly.
