TMC retains Abhishek Banerjee as national general secretary
The TMC chief also rewarded her trusted aides by giving them plum posts, amid a rift between the old guard and the new.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee reappointed her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, as the party’s national general secretary after a meeting of its newly constituted national working committee on Friday.
The TMC chief also rewarded her trusted aides by giving them plum posts, amid a rift between the old guard and the new.
A discord had emerged in the TMC not only over the selection of candidates for the ongoing civic body elections but also implementation of the ‘one man, one post’ policy that the party had adopted last year. Abhishek was a staunch supporter of this policy.
On February 12, Mamata had dissolved all existing posts within the party, and constituted a new, 20-member national working committee.
Following an internal meeting at Mamata’s south Kolkata residence, senior party leader Subrata Bakshi and minister Chandrima Bhattacharya were given the post of national vice-presidents alongside former Union minister Yashwant Sinha, who joined the party last year. The party had only one national vice-president earlier.
Besides them, minister Aroop Biswas was made the treasurer and Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim the in-charge of coordination. Both posts were created recently.
Veteran Rajya Sabha member Sukhendu Sekhar Roy was made the party’s national spokesperson, a role that Upper House member Derek O’Brien played for almost 15 years. Roy will also be the spokesperson for the party’s Rajya Sabha members when the House is in session. For the Lok Sabha, the same role will be played by party leader Kakali Ghosh Dastidar.
“From now on, Roy, Ghosh Dastidar and Lok Sabha member Mahua Moitra will brief the media in Delhi,” TMC state general secretary Partha Chatterjee announced after the meeting.
“Yashwant Sinha and former finance minister Amit Mitra will formulate the party’s economic policies as senior members of the committee,” he added.
“Mamata Banerjee made it clear on Friday evening that she is in no mood to let the one-man-one-post policy influence her strategic decisions,” a senior TMC leader, who attended the meeting, told HT on condition of anonymity.
