Even as it continues its more than a decade long tenure as West Bengal’s ruling dispensation, Trinamool Congress cannot be called a structured political outfit where decisions taken by consensus are made into public policies. But of late, some organisational changes are being carried out like formation of core committee which indicate a small step towards collective decision making though in reality party supremo, Mamata Banerjee the principal vote catcher continues to call the shots.
One may very well ask, what are these committees in aid of? In so many words, it aims to mollify leaders who had been distanced from the party and persuade those to stay within its fold.
The real reason behind the organisational revamp can be traced to the coming electoral battle next. The TMC leadership seeks to set its house in order before taking on BJP in 2026 Assembly elections.
In a bid to pull up its socks, the TMC leadership has appointed 11 new district chiefs and 12 new chairpersons. It is aimed to keep factionalism in check after intra-party squabbles hit Trinamool prospects hard on the eve of 2021 Assembly polls.
A group of leaders which included ministers like Subhendu Adhikari and legislators like Baisakhi Dalmia switched loyalty to BJP. It did not take the party leadership long to find out that the disgruntlement can be traced to being sidelined by some senior leaders.
Individuals, no matter, how influential a district unit chief is, he/she has have been replaced by committees. The best example being that of Birbhum strongman and district chief Anubrata Mondal who was replaced by a core committee.
The core committee is headed by senior legislator , Ashish Banerjee while Kajal Sheikh who never made any secret of his opposition to Mondal is a one of the members. . Sheikh is also stated to be close the party’s de facto number two Abhishek Banerjee.
Meanwhile, as Birbhum’s organisational revamp meeting was in progress, party supremo Mamata Banerjee called up Mondal. It was learnt that she had asked the veteran leader to coordinate with others.
But reading between the lines, TMC insiders feel the phone call to Mondal actually conveyed the message that his wings have not been clipped. Incidentally, two MPs of the district, Satabdi Roy and Asit Mal, not known to be close to Mondal are invitees to the core committee.
On the face of it, the control of the TMC party organization in Birbhum does not rest with one individual post Mondal’s removal. The Birbhum strongman has been in troubled waters ever since his arrest in August 2022 and being lodged in Tihar reformatory on charges of cattle smuggling.
A high profile leader, Mondal has been lying low after his release on bail. But Trinamool insiders feel that the party supremo has carried out a deft balancing act and camouflaged it as a reshuffle and a endeavour to usher in inner party democracy.
Another reshuffle has taken place in north Kolkata organisational district in which its erstwhile chief Sudip Bandopadhyay has been redesignated its chairperson of the district core committee. Bandopadhyay is the leader of Trinamool Congress Parliamentary Party in Lok Sabha.
The core committee includes senior leaders like Shashi Panja, Nayana Bandyopadhyay, Atin Ghosh, Swarnakamal Saha, Paresh Pal, Vivek Gupta to name a few. Kunal Ghosh who find not get along with Bandopadhyay is a notable exclusion in the core committee.
Differences between Bandopadhyay and Ghosh surfaced during the Lok Sabha elections last year. Ghosh had strongly lobbied against Bandopadhyay’s candidature and stayed away from supervising the voting process on the polling day.
Though Bandopadhyay had comfortably won, the dissent against him had caught the leadership’s attention. Not making Ghosh a part of the core committee, the leadership sent a two fold message.
It mollified Bandopadhyay who was rubbed the wrong on his removal as district chief. By keeping Ghosh out of the charmed circle, he was asked not to unfurl the banner of dissent in a manner which is embarassing to the party leadership.
In all, 18 of the 35 organisational districts have seen changes in leadership. Removal of Bankura district chief Arup Chakraborty and Darjeeling (,plain) district Papiya Ghosh being replaced are cases in point.
Party supremo, Mamata Banerjee announced the organisational restructuring in February. Though her nephew and
de facto second in command, Abhishek Banerjee, called for a team effort post revamp, fissures continue to be there is Trinamool Congress organisation structure in which loyalty individual leaders and not the party is the order of the day. .
