EVEN AS party chief Mamata Banerjee has been emphasizing the need to ensure a balance between the old- timers and greenhorns who are believed to be behind her nephew Abhishek Banerjee, the perceived gap in the ranks widened further with a number of young leaders in the grassroots as well as the cousins of the Diamond Harbor MP taking to social media to bat for ‘one man, one post’.
The ‘one person, one post’ policy has been floating around in the corridors of the ruling camp after Trinamool’s thumping win in the last Assembly polls, but it is yet to be implemented in earnest.
Toeing the Opposition line, a leader from the Trinamool’s youth brigade even posted on social media on the need for the ruling party to shun violence and bring in central forces for the upcoming civic elections.
As many as 108 municipal corporations across the state are to go polls on February 27.
The recent polls to Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) were held under the supervision of the state police, with the ruling party standing firm amid calls from the Opposition to deploy central forces.
Senior Trinamool leaders stated later on Friday evening that the party does not recognize and endorse such social media posts and any and all issues need to be flagged and handled within.
However, despite the clarification by the senior leaders, Mamata has asked them over for a meeting at her Kalighat residence on Saturday. According to Trinamool sources, Abhishek Banerjee, Partha Chatterjee, Aroop Biswas, Subrata Bakshi and other senior leaders have been asked to be present at the meeting.
Stirring the hornets’ nest on Thursday’s night was a Facebook post from Debangshu Bhattacharya, a prominent face in the Trinamool’s young crop of leaders considered close to Abhishek. In his post, Debangshu demanded that the civic polls be held with twice the number of central forces than was deployed in the last Assembly polls.
Abhishek has been vocal within the party confines in his opposition to the violence that was seen during the last panchayat elections in Bengal. He also criticized the violence openly on a number of occasions. According to Trinamool sources, the party’s chief election strategist Prashant Kishor has spoken on the need to cut out violence from the civic polls. He even added that if the state police isn’t capable of ensuring a violence-free civic polls, they should be held on the watch of the central paramilitary forces. However, party supremo Mamata Banerjee is not believed to be in favor of calling in the central forces.
The controversy did not end with Debangshu’s post as a clutch of youth leaders, all considered close to Abhishek, changed their Facebook cover pages with a post saying, “I support one person one post in AITC (All India Trinamool Congress).” Notable among these leaders were Sudip Raha, South Kolkata Youth Trinamool president Sarthak Bandyopadhyayand Trinamool Chhatra Parishad state president Trinankur Bhattacharya. The cousins of the Trinamool all-India general secretary, Akash Banerjee, Agnisha Banerjee and Aditi Gayen, too, shared the post on their social media pages.
The banner on the official Twitter page of senior Trinamool leader and minister Chandrima Bhattacharya was also changed to “I support one man one post policy in AITC (All India Trinamool Congress).”
However, she later clarified that the banner was changed by I-PAC, the organization headed by Kishor, which handles her Twitter account.
Denying her claim, I-PAC released a statement later saying, “I-PAC doesn’t handle any digital properties of @AITCofficial or any of its leaders. Anyone making such claim is either uninformed or is blatantly lying. AITC should look into if and how their digital properties and/or that of their leaders are being “allegedly (mis)used.”
The flurry of social media posts at midnight and thereafter followed an interview that Abhishek gave to a television channel last Sunday, voicing similar sentiments.
During the interview, the Diamond Harbor MP claimed that the ‘one man, one post’ policy has been implemented 90-95 per cent in the party, adding, “I will keep doing this as long as I am the general secretary.”
However, he said, “It has not been effected on some of our state leaders,” adding that this policy was proposed by none other than his aunt and the party’s supreme leader and it will be implemented across ranks and seniority only if she wants.
Speaking on the matter, Kolkata mayor and senior Trinamool leader Firhad Hakim said, “I have been authorized by our party’s chairperson Mamata Banerjee to request our members not to mislead people by such social media posts. Don’t just quote a few lines of what our leader said as there are plenty more. She can even change the ‘one man, one post’ policy if she so wants. It’s her discretion. She has been re-elected as the chairperson of the party and will soon select a new committee which will adopt a resolution on the ‘one man, one post’ policy.”
After storming to power for the third time, Mamata called a meeting of the Trinamool Working Committee. During the meeting, she made her nephew, who, until then, was heading the party’s youth wing, as the national general secretary. The ruling party also resolved to implement the ‘one man, one post’ policy at the meeting.
However, the policy wasn’t reflected in the party’s choice of candidates for the KMC polls as MP Mala Roy, Minister Firhad Hakim, as well as MLAs Atin Ghosh, Debashis Kumar and Malay Majumdar were given tickets. According to Trinamool sources, Abhishek spoke up against this and even proposed not to make Hakim a candidate for the civic polls.
The social media posts are being seen as a message to the Trinamool’s top leadership to strengthen Abhishek’s voice within the party.
A senior leader close to Mamata said, “Abhishek Banerjee seems to be in a hurry to become supreme leader of the party and this has created huge differences within. We don’t know where it will end.”
Meanwhile, senior leaders such as Madan Mitra and Sougata Roy spoke up for Abhishek Banerjee. Mitra, who was elected MLA from Kamarhati last year, said, “After Mamata Banerjee, I did not see any leader other than Abhishek Banerjee.”
Sources said Sougata Roy was warned by the TMC’s parliamentary party leader Sudip Banerjee against going public with his views and was told to say whatever he wanted to within the party.
According to party sources, the leadership is mulling stern action against Madan Mitra. However, even after being warned, Mitra said, “Abhishek Banerjee is in my heart and Mamata Banerjee is my eyes. But I am not a follower of Abhishek Banerjee. He is like my son. I will do whatever Mamata Banerjee asks me to.”
Meanwhile, Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh sought to strike a balance in his latest tweet, saying, “@AITCofficial Proud to be an ordinary soldier of the family. Our Supreme Leader @MamataOfficial has the last word. She built the team through her hard struggle. Her commander @abhishekaitc, waged a historic fight at this year’s Assembly polls. It may come as bad news to our enemies, but our party is progressing and will continue to do so.”
,