TMC: Mamata Banerjee Sets Things Right
By A Special Correspondent
First publised on 2022-02-13 08:35:37
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Mamata Banerjee took strong steps to curb dissent in the party and prevent the one-man-one-post issue from escalating by dissolving all party posts and constituting a 20-member national working committee of the party under her chairpersonship. Her nephew Abhishek Banerjee and all senior party leaders from Bengal were included in the working committee which also included Yashwant Sinha and Rajesh Pati Tripathi. Two notable omissions were senior leader and Lok Sabha MP Saugata Roy and leader of the party in the Rajya Sabha, Derek O'Brien. Banerjee will nominate office-bearers soon.
Party seniors later said that Mamata Banerjee spoke at length in the two-hour meeting and reminded leaders that party unity was above all else. She is also reported to have cautioned leaders against adventurism on social media. Since it was a closed-door meeting, it is not immediately clear whether any firm decision was taken on the one-man-one-post issue or the I-PAC issue. Both these issues have been at the centre of the raging debate in the party ever since some younger leaders perceived to be close to Abhishek Banerjee raised the former and I-PAC was indirectly blamed for the chaos over the list of candidates for the civic elections. Reports also suggested that Abhishek Banerjee was very subdued during the meeting and spoke little.
Mamata Banerjee is a seasoned and street-smart politician whose grip over the party apparatus is iron-tight. She is not one who will silently watch the drift. She will also not tolerate dissent. This meeting and the decisions taken in it were her way of telling those who are creating a disturbance that she is still in supreme command and such things will not be tolerated in the party. It is expected that the dissenters will fall in line now and will not try to target senior leaders.
