Trinamool Congress insiders say that for the past two years, Mamata Banerjee had virtually handed over charge of party affairs to Abhishek Banerjee.
With Mamata Banerjee realising that the divide and acrimony between those leaders who were with her since the party’s formation and those allied with her nephew Abhishek Banerjee was taking its toll across the state, leading to fights and even murders, the TMC supremo has moved swiftly to assert her supremacy and cut Abhishek and his followers down to size. Trinamool Congress insiders say that for the past two years, Mamata Banerjee had virtually handed over charge of party affairs to Abhishek Banerjee, who also took centre-stage by undertaking a Nabo Jowar Yatra for a period of two months covering West Bengal from north to south.
This yatra took place months before the panchayat elections. While the yatra put the spotlight firmly on Mamata Banerjee’s nephew, it also brought out the opulence of the initiative which was organised by IPAC, the consultancy organisation that virtually runs the Trinamool Congress on Abhishek’s behalf and acts as his eyes and ears. While the yatra attracted eyeballs, it also brought out the differences between factions of the party.
State intelligence reports to Mamata Banerjee made it clear that people were not taking kindly to the opulence that was displayed during the Nabo Jowar Yatra, given the fact that Abhishek Banerjee’s name had been linked to the many scams that are under investigation in West Bengal by the Enforcement Directorate. Though the Trinamool Congress won a landslide in the panchayat elections held subsequently, it was marred by violence and deaths amid blatant favouritism by the State bureaucracy and the police.
Another factor is the intelligence assessment that the Trinamool Congress’ image has taken a beating due to widespread corruption charges, and that may affect the party’s poll prospects, especially because the 2024 Lok Sabha elections will be held under the central Election Commission’s watch and the Trinamool poll management machinery would not be able to work as freely as it did during the Panchayat and Assembly elections. Sources say that the lust for power had given rise to intense factionalism in the party and leaders close to Abhishek wanted to sideline older leaders so as to grab as many seats as possible starting with the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Given this state of affairs, sources close to Mamata Banerjee say, it was natural that she would take back the control that she had delegated to her nephew. “Few people understand the public pulse as well as Mamata Banerjee,” said a long-time close aide of the Chief Minister. “That is why, at the Netaji Indoor meeting of Trinamool leaders, a big hint of her intention came out when the backdrop of the stage omitted any picture or mention of Abhishek Banerjee.
The entire show at Netaji Indoor Stadium was managed by her loyalist Subrata Bakshi. And it is just not believable that he would even contemplate taking any such step unless he had Mamata’s backing.” In district after district, intense faction fights are going on. In Birbhum, the fight was between the followers of Mamata’s confidant Anubrata Mondal who is in Tihar Jail for the past year in connection with cattle and coal smuggling and his bete noire Kajal Sheikh.
In Bengal’s largest district, North 24-Parganas, there are many factions and the Trinamool leadership is struggling to contain disaffection. Here too, the glue which held the factions together was Mamata Banerjee’s Forest Minister Jyotipriya Mallick. But he too has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate for his role in the ration distribution scam which is taking on enormous proportions. Given this backdrop, Mamata Banerjee has started convening district-wise meetings of her party’s leaders at her Kalighat residence. “She is reading out the riot act to the leaders,” Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, one of Mamata’s oldest lieutenants, told The Sunday Guardian.
“Her blunt message to her leaders is, ‘sink your differences and work unitedly for the party. Or I shall just remove you’”, he added. At these district-wise meetings, she is making it clear that she will be taking the decision on whom to field in the coming Lok Sabha elections. This is in marked contrast to the situation that existed for the past two years, say Trinamool leaders.
Since 2021, the leaders from the district were summoned to Abhishek Banerjee’s office for meetings and to receive instructions. Another point of conflict has been Abhishek Banerjee’s belief that there should be an age limit for those contesting polls. This, observers say, was aimed at those leaders who had been with Mamata in the Congress party and had set up the Trinamool Congress under Mamata’s direction. Those leaders who were close to Abhishek were eager to take over the reins of power from the old guard. However, in the past few weeks, Mamata Banerjee has cracked the whip on this and has publicly said that she wants proper respect to be shown to those who had walked with her on her uncertain path when she had parted ways with the Congress Party.
Standing by her old guard, she has been saying in meeting after meeting that she wants both the old guard and the newer, younger leaders to work unitedly for the party, shunning their ego and ambition. She even snubbed her nephew Abhishek, after he brought up the age-limit issue at a programme in his Lok Sabha constituency of Diamond Harbour.
“Will I be able to do as much work as I am able to do today at the age of 56? Can I do the work I do at 36 when I am 70?” he had asked. Within 24 hours of Abhishek’s speech, Mamata pointed to two senior bureaucrats— both ex-Chief Secretaries, Alapan Banerjee and Hari Krishna Dwivedi— from the dais of a public meeting at Gangasagar and said: “If people are qualified and healthy to work, we don’t send them away after 60 years. We use their experience.” As a result, observers say, ageing leaders such as Trinamool MPs Sudeep Banerjee in Kolkata North, Sougata Roy in Dumdum and Kalyan Banerjee in Srirampur are almost certain to get tickets.
After all, Mamata Banerjee has once again shown that she and only her words matter in her party.