Kolkata: After losing power in West Bengal, the internal strife in Trinamool Congress is coming to the fore. On Friday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had called an important party meeting at her residence in Kalighat, but far fewer leaders attended it than expected.
Heavy absence was seen in the meeting
TMC has a total of 80 MLAs, but only 8 MLAs attended the meeting. Only 4 out of 28 Lok Sabha MPs and 11 out of 13 Rajya Sabha MPs were absent. A few days ago also 60 MLAs had boycotted a meeting. The continuously decreasing attendance has increased the concern of the party leadership.
Those present at the meeting included Madan Mitra, Firhad Hakim, Kunal Ghosh, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, Bina Mandal, Ashima Patra, Biman Banerjee and Ashok Deb. Only Derek O’Brien and Dola Sen reached the Rajya Sabha. Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee was present in the meeting.
Changes in party organization
Despite low attendance, Mamata Banerjee took many important decisions in the organization. Abhishek Banerjee was retained as National General Secretary. Derek O’Brien and Dola Sen have been roped in to assist him. The party also appointed two new national joint secretaries.
Chandrima Bhattacharya was made the state president while reorganizing the West Bengal State Committee. Subrata Bakshi will remain the Vice President in the National Working Committee. Sajda Ahmed, Mamta Thakur, Nayana Bandyopadhyay and Swati Khandekar were given the responsibility of the post of state vice president.
State general secretaries include the names of Babar Ali, Pulak Roy, Ashima Patra, Arup Biswas and Rajib Banerjee. Jyotipriyo Mallick, Dr. Rana Chatterjee, Bidesh Bose, Trinankur Bhattacharjee, Jaya Dutta, Tapas Chatterjee, Vasundhara Goswami and Gautam Deb have been included among the executive members.
New responsibility in youth and other wings
Sayoni Ghosh has been made the president of TMYC while Madhurima Thakur will be the general secretary. Mahila Morcha President Mala Roy, Student Council President Priyanka Adhikari and command of INTUC has been handed over to Moloy Ghatak.
The responsibility of the hawkers wing was given to Madan Mitra, Becharam Manna of the farmers wing and Purnendu Bose of the farm laborers wing. Birbaha Hansda will take charge of the SC ST wing.
Chandrima Bhattacharya, Kalyan Banerjee, Madan Mitra and Kunal Ghosh have been retained in the spokesperson panel. Party sources say that this is just the initial list, more names will be added later.
Question on internal discord
Low attendance in the meeting and continuous resignations have raised questions on the unity of the party. Political experts believe that if the discontent does not stop, TMC may have to suffer further losses.
Comments are closed.