The Trinamool Congress appears to have earned a respite from the bitter infighting within with the reinstatement of Abhishek Banerjee as party national general secretary along with accommodation of senior leaders in the national working committee.
Mamata Banerjee has assigned senior leaders like Jaswant Sinha and Amit Mitra to the national working committee and appointed Shukhendu Shekhar Roy as national spokesperson, while expressing her continued faith in Abhishek as the next generation leader of the party.
The development follows the public airing of disgruntlement by the party leadership over Abhishek’s expanding role.
TMC sources said the reshuffle is also meant to project the “growing” national character of the party after last year’s Assembly election win. Many leaders from the Northeast have joined the party, while it has also acquired prominent faces in Goa, for example, and wanted to project them.
A senior leader said the clear message was that while Abhishek was Banerjee’s political successor, “senior leaders should not be humiliated”. All parties go through such a period of transition, the leader said. “When Modi-Shah gradually became the face of BJP, the Advani-Murli Manohar Joshi camp was moved to a ‘margdarshak’ role. Similarly, many leaders like Subrata Bakshi, Partha Chatterjee in the state and Yashwant Sinha, Amit Mitra and Sudip Banerjee at the national level are moving into essentially an advisory position, with youth leaders taking executive roles.”
Sources said Yashwant Sinha and Mitra, a former Bengal finance minister, would help the TMC formulate an economic policy which will be its showcase before the 2024 general elections. Roy will liaise between the party and media in Delhi, aided by young leaders like Mahua Moitra.
TMC sources said revamp of the new state committee will be next, with senior leaders like Partha Chatterjee, Subrata Balshi, Firhad Hakim to take the backseat and young faces like Kunal Ghosh, Pratima Mondol, Samir Chakraborty and Sayani Ghosh to the fore. A senior leader said, “She wants to bring forward the new generation so that the party never suffers in a leadership crisis.”
On the role of political strategist Prashant Kishor’s I-PAC, seen to have Abhishek’s backing and to be the bone of contention between him and senior leaders, a senior leader said the outfit might see a curbing of its powers. “I-PAC utmost will be able to give suggestions regarding party functioning, and that too to only Banerjee. But, they will not be allowed to interfere in day-to-day functioning.”
A section of TMC leaders said I-PAC might now focus on other states where the TMC hopes to expand.