As part of a party-wide overhaul, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had, on June 5, elevated her nephew and MP Abhishek Banerjee as the party's all-India general secretary, the second-most important post in the organisation. The 33-year old was one of the foremost campaigners for the TMC in the just-concluded assembly polls. Abhishek had clarified that he had no intention to hold any public office or ministerial post for the next 20 years, and would only want to work for his party's development.
Abhishek was not the only change in the party apparatus. MP Kakali Ghosh Dastidar was made the women's wing chief, and actor-turned-politician Sayoni Ghosh the youth wing president—the post earlier held by Abhishek. Kunal Ghosh, a spokesperson for the TMC, was appointed as the general secretary of the party's state committee.
South Kolkata MP Mala Roy was made the president of TMC's 'Banga Janani Bahini'. Ritabrata Banerjee, a former CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP who joined the Mamata Banerjee camp after being expelled by the Marxist party, will head the TMC's state labour wing. Veteran leader Purnendu Basu will helm the 'Khet Mazdoor' cell of the party, and filmmaker Raj Chakraborty was made TMC cultural cell president.
Soon after his elevation, Abhishek made the party's ambitions clear. They would no longer be content with power in just West Bengal; the party will soon make inroads into the rest of the country. He said his party aims to spread its footprint in every corner of the country and a plan to this effect will be ready in a month's time. "We have received around one lakh emails from people across India thanking the TMC for defeating the BJP in assembly polls. We will take the BJP head-on in every state where the TMC builds its foundation," the MP said.
How practicable would a pan-India plan be? The TMC could look to target constituencies with significant minority populace, which has been its spine in West Bengal.
He said a concrete programme was in the offing. "This attempt to make TMC a national party will be very different from our previous endeavours. We will not be visiting any state to have only just one or two MLAs or increase our vote share. We will take on the BJP and win elections," he said.
The Trinamool Congresss organisational changes seem aimed at bringing in fresh faces from the next generation in order to renew brand TMC ahead of the next round of elections. The move also reflects a trend among regional parties where Akhilesh Yadav, has taken over the mantle from his father and founder of the Samajwadi Party, while Tejashwi Yadav has taken over from his father Laloo Prasad Yadav in leading the powerful RJD party which almost upset the apple-cart in Bihar.
Newly appointed state General Secretary Kunal Ghosh said "inducting new faces doesn't indicate Trinamool is not giving weightage to the experience and wisdom of seasoned veterans they will be there to guide the young. Ghosh, known to be close to both Trinamool Surpremo Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek, claimed the move to induct younger faces was with an eye to project a young band of leaders before the people ahead of the Lok Sabha battle three years from now, to reach out with the development work pursued by our government and counter the false communal narrative of BJP.
-Inputs from agencies