The new appointees in the Trinamul Congress got to work building bridges with the old incumbents on Friday, trying to minimise the possibility of differences that turn counterproductive for the party, a day after Mamata Banerjee made sweeping changes in the organisational structure.
While announcing the changes in a closed-door meeting held via video-conference on Thursday, the chief minister had repeatedly warned against letting differences within affect the party’s prospects in the next Assembly polls.
Accordingly, efforts of rapprochement were on in the west and the north – the two belts where the BJP made major inroads into in the Lok Sabha elections last year.
“From Bankura to Alipurduar and from Jhargram to Malda, there were a lot of olive branches extended between actual and potential rival lobbies. The initiative was in keeping with her (Mamata’s) instructions for the new appointees,” said a senior minister.
In Bankura, new district president Shyamal Santra, a minister of state, met two former presidents, Arup Khan and Arup Chakraborty, seeking their blessings. He had also called the immediate predecessor, Subhasish Batabyal, for a meeting but they exchanged pleasantries over the phone because of the latter’s home isolation on account of a Covid-19 scare.
In Purulia, newly appointed president Gurupada Tudu met Shantiram Mahato, whom he replaced. Mahato said later that Tudu had sought his guidance.
New Jhargram district Trinamul president Dulal Murmu called Birbaha Soren seeking her support. He also met several local leaders and reached out to various tribal factions.
In north Bengal, there was some stocktaking in some of the districts before the various factions began wooing each other.
“There are grievances in the factions that lost out or believe they were overlooked, but everyone has to get to work, together, without further ado,” said a senior leader.
According to him, although there were some inputs on discontent brewing internally in some north Bengal districts, such as South Dinajpur and Cooch Behar, the general view is of agreement on working together till the Assembly polls.
However, a senior leader from north Bengal pointed out that Team Prashant Kishor’s feedback model-based inputs that went a long way in helping Mamata make the decisions were not “entirely accurate”.
“There were some strange choices, such as the elevation of (Rajya Sabha member) Shanta Chhetri from the hills to not only the 21-member state coordination committee but also to the seven-member steering committee, deemed most powerful after Mamata Banerjee herself,” he said.
“Chhetri has no influence outside the hills, not even in the plains of Darjeeling, forget the rest of north Bengal. There will be little use of having her in these committees instead of leaders with more clout or mass appeal,” he added. “However, all this is secondary now. Getting together to work as one for the one and only goal of winning the Assembly polls – irrespective of designations – is what we are looking to do.”
