Mamata Banerjee Handles TMC Infighting For Now, Abhishek Banerjee’s Clout Diminished

Kolkata: For Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress (TMC), February 2022 saw intra-party dissensions at their peak even though TMC established its unassailable control over civic bodies amid opposition charges that the elections were not free and fair.

February also saw Mamata reiterating that hers was the last word in party matters, although this has never been in doubt since TMC came into existence in 1998. In a sudden online meeting, the election for the post of TMC's chairperson was held last month, and as expected by the rank and file, Mamata Banerjee was elected as the chairperson.

Post this election, Mamata Banerjee abolished all posts at the apex level of the party. Within a week after that, she announced the formation of a national working committee (NWC) in place of the long-existing core committee and distributed responsibilities.

Despite persistent reports of serious differences between Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee, the latter was retained as national general secretary. The significance of the apex committee's composition and distribution of posts unfolded in days.

Abhishek Banerjee, despite his responsibility of establishing TMC in other states, lost much of the importance he had acquired in the last four-five years. In TMC circles, it was believed that Mamata Banerjee was grooming her nephew as her successor, and therefore, he was treated as second-in-command. He also had a significant role in managing party funds.

Arup Biswas, a long-time party loyalist and confidante of Mamata Banerjee, was appointed treasurer. Two other leaders were also authorised to sign cheques. Thus, Abhishek Banerjee was divested of fund management powers. More surprises were in store for him, and scores of TMC leaders known to be his followers.

Mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and state's transport minister Firhad Hakim was elevated as a coordinator between NWC and the party supremo. In other words, Hakim will be Mamata Banerjee's eyes and ears, a de factor political secretary. In this arrangement, political observers also see her decision to limit direct access of leaders, including Abhishek Banerjee, to her on party issues.

Hakim has gained the most from recent changes in terms of political importance. Biswas, also a minister, comes next. Simultaneously, she has rewarded some leaders with high-sounding designations for their steadfast loyalty, including education minister Partha Chattopadhyaya and TMC state unit president and Rajya Sabha member Subrata Baxi.

Reports of growing differences between Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee have been circulating since October last year. Two power centres – Mamata Banerjee's residence at Kalighat and Abhishek Banerjee's office at Camac Street – were realities for party activists. This is despite the fact that the party chief politically had become more powerful after shattering the Bharatiya Janata Party's dream of capturing power for the first time in West Bengal in the Assembly elections held in March-April 2021. Image maker and poll consultant Prashant Kishore, brought on the scene by the party chief after BJP had bagged 18 out of 42 Lok Sabha seats in the May 2019 General elections, became a factor in TMC gradually.

Eventually, an Abhishek Banerjee-Prashant Kishore (AB-PK) team took shape. This was not to the liking of many TMC seniors who had stood by Mamata Banerjee since the party's formation; However, some seniors, such as Lok Sabha member Prof Saugata Roy and Rajya Sabha member Derek O'Brien were believed to be close to Abhishek Banerjee.

The AB-PK team played a key role in selecting candidates for civic elections held in recent weeks after the pandemic had considerably subsided. Heightened internal bickering followed when the leadership discovered to its surprise that candidates' lists, not approved by the party chairperson, had been uploaded on TMC's social media platforms. The old guard felt this was the handiwork of Kishore's I-PAC team with the concurrence of Abhishek Banerjee.

Enraged, Mamata Banerjee ordered the removal of the lists. After changes were made, fresh lists duly signed by the designated office-bearer were uploaded [lists were for civic bodies other than KMC for which election had been held a few weeks earlier.] The division in the party on this count was clear when recently Serampore Lok Sabha member Kalyan Bandyopadhyay targeted Kishore and asked why a political party had to depend on a consultant. It is believed in party circles that Abhishek Banerjee was also in the ambit of Bandyopadhyay's ire.

A politically weightier reason for the unrest was Abhishek Banerjee's suggestion to introduce the concept of one-person-one-post to modernise the party with new faces and higher responsibilities for young leaders who had proved their worth.

For Mamata Banerjee, it wasn't easy to accept the suggestion. Admittedly, she prefers importance being given to seniors, and simultaneously youths with leadership qualities are groomed. But, if she were to accept Abhishek Banerjee's one-person-one-post proposal, she would have felt constrained in assigning responsibilities to persons of her choice. An example in this regard is Hakim, who has been handed two administrative posts – that of KMC mayor and transport minister- and one political assignment – that of coordination with NWC.

There are also instances of aggrieved seniors. One such senior is MLA Madan Mitra, who, when advised by a minister to take up his complaints with the grievance redressal committee, retorted that although he has been with the party for a long time, he never knew either the address of the grievance redressal committee or whom to apprise about his problems.

Recently, in a sudden outburst, Mitra targeted Roy, whose Lok Sabha constituency Dum Dum includes Mitra's Kamarhati Assembly seat. He even threatened to make things difficult for Roy. The latter reacted, saying he had practised politics holding his head aloft all along.

Mamata Banerjee is now earmarking time to pursue her ambition to become a factor in national politics. To this end, she has assigned her advisor Amit Mitra (former finance minister) and TMC vice-president Yashwant Sinha (external affairs minister in earlier BJP regime) to formulate TMC's foreign policy stance. This is at a time when she has pledged to walk that extra mile to work for industrialisation.

"I have done a lot for social welfare in my first two terms. The industry is my priority in this term," she has been saying of late. She has also designated Rajya Sabha member Sukhendu Sekhar Roy as a national spokesperson.

By recasting the party set-up and distributing assignments among office-bearers in a manner that appears to have diminished Abhishek Banerjee's clout, at least for now, she has handled the discontent. It remains to be seen whether the time she is spending on realising her new ambition affects governance in the state. But, politically, according to Prof Subhamoy Maitra of the Indian Statistical Institute, she is on a strong wicket.

"Statistical analyses have shown that usually if a party's vote share is 10% or higher than its nearest rival/combine, that party happens to be way ahead of its nearest rival in terms of the number of seats bagged. TMC's seat share has exceeded 70-75% of the total seats; it may be because of the welfare/cash transfer schemes. Granting that unfair electoral practices alleged by the opposition got the party about half the number of seats it won, even then you will find that, as of now, TMC is irreplaceable," Prof Maitra told NewsClick.