Party sources say that Abhishek is relatively less rigid in his political stand as compared to Mamata Banerjee.
The selection of candidates by the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections is being seen as the official confirmation of the reins of the party now being in the hands of Abhishek Banerjee, the 36-year-old party general secretary and Member of Parliament from Diamond Harbour seat.
According to party leaders and Kolkata-based observers who closely follow the TMC, unlike in the last few Lok Sabha elections, where Abhishek acted more as an observer and an advisor to his aunt, party chief and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, this time he hand-picked the candidates and in some seats his decision over-rode the decision of other leaders.
The 27-year-old Debangshu Bhattacharya, state spokesperson of TMC and general secretary of Trinamool Youth Congress, who also heads the social media team of the party, will be contesting from Tamluk. He is considered to be a close associate of Abhishek and despite reservations from some quarters from within the party on the ground that he is too young and inexperienced to be given a Lok Sabha ticket, Abhishek ensured that he was given the chance. Party leaders had suggested that his massive following on social media should not be seen as a criterion to give him a Lok Sabha ticket.
Bhattacharya, who coined the party’s song for the 2021 Assembly elections, “Khela Hobe”, is facing an uphill task as he is contesting from Tamluk against former Kolkata High Court judge, the hugely popular Justice (retired) Abhijit Gangopadhyay. What is likely to come as a major challenge for him is that the Tamluk Lok Sabha seat is regarded as a stronghold of the Adhikari family—Suvendu Adhikari is the Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly—which has represented the seat since 2009 while contesting on TMC tickets.
Same is the case with the 31-year-old Sayoni Ghosh, Bengali film and television actress. She will be making her electoral debut from Jadavpur, the seat adjacent to South Kolkata constituency. Abhishek had ensured that she was appointed the “president of the youth wing of Trinamool Congress” in June 2021, after he had resigned from the said post.
A section from within the party had advised Abhishek not to field her in this election as she had allegedly posted pictures that were seen as denigrating Hindu Gods. However, Abhishek vetoed their reservations.
According to party leaders, even the nomination of former cricketers Yusuf Pathan from Berhampore and Kirti Azad from Durgapur-Burdwan seats was Abhishek’s decision. What has raised eyebrows in the TMC is that the two leaders are “outsiders” (Pathan belongs to Gujarat, while Azad is from Bihar and neither can speak fluent Bengali), but still they were preferred over local leaders by Abhishek who decided to give them the ticket when Mamata Banerjee had been focusing on a narrative of “Bengalis vs outsiders” and launching political attacks on non-Bengali speakers coming to the state to campaign.
The idea to give ticket to these two “outsiders” is being seen as a step taken by Abhishek to assert his style of functioning in the party, where he wants to create his own group of leaders, by gradually sidelining the old timers, who are yet to accept his authority.
Another of Abhishek’s choices is Biswajit Das, TMC’s Bongaon Lok Sabha candidate. Das had won the 2021 Assembly elections on a BJP ticket, but later switched to the TMC and was appointed district president of the TMC. He too is seen by the party cadre as someone who has the direct “blessings” of Abhishek rather than enjoying the patronage of Mamata Banerjee.
Similarly, former BJP MLA from Ranaghat South seat, Mukut Mani Adhikari, who was given the Lok Sabha ticket from Ranaghat LS seat, is also Abhishek’s choice. Adhikari, who belongs to the Matua community, was given the ticket just days after he switched sides.
Same is the case with Krishna Kalyani, who won the 2021 Assembly polls on a BJP ticket, but joined the TMC within months. Another of Abhishek’s men, he has been given the ticket from Raiganj.
Prasun Banerjee, a 2006-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the West Bengal cadre, who took voluntary retirement from service in the second week of March, has been given the TMC ticket to contest from Malda North. He has been a close friend of Abhishek for long and was given the ticket, while vetoing other party contenders who have been working on the ground for long.
When the TMC was announcing all its 42 candidates at one go in Kolkata, the 69-year-old Mamata Banerjee handed over the microphone to Abhishek Banerjee to declare the names of the candidates of the party, while she decided to walk with the candidates on the ramp that was created at Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Ground.
Party sources said that Abhishek is relatively less rigid in his political stand as compared to Mamata and they will not be surprised if he adopts a more accommodating strategy in the coming months vis-à-vis the Central government in New Delhi to ensure development and progress of the state, which has fallen behind on many social and economic indicators.