Mamata Banerjee on Monday will meet 70 Trinamul leaders from Birbhum to gauge the party’s state of affairs in the absence of district party president Anubrata Mondal following his CBI arrest in a multi-crore cattle smuggling case last year.
The chief minister will go on a three-day trip to Birbhum starting Monday, her first since Mondal was arrested on August 11 from his Bolpur home by the central agency.
“The meeting by our party supremo is very important as we have witnessed several setbacks in the absence of Kestoda (as Mondal is fondly known). Though he (Mondal) is still the Birbhum party president, there is a void in the local leadership with his prolonged absence, which may pose a threat ahead of panchayat polls. The chief minister is aware of the crisis and that is why her meeting is scheduled within an hour of her arrival on Monday afternoon,” said a Trinamul veteran in Birbhum.
According to her official itinerary, Mamata will reach Bolpur by chopper from Calcutta on Monday afternoon, leave for Malda on Tuesday for a public distribution programme in Gazole and then return to Bolpur. On Wednesday, she will attend a public distribution programme in Bolpur town and leave for East Burdwan on Thursday for another administrative event.
Birbhum is a key bastion for Trinamul in central Bengal.
In 2019, despite the “saffron tide”, Trinamul secured both Lok Sabha seats of Bolpur and Birbhum in the district. In the 2021 Assembly polls, Trinamul was able to secure 10 out of 11 segments. Trinamul won around 80 per cent of the seats uncontested in the 2018 panchayat polls amid charges of violence under Mondal’s leadership.
“Party leaders including Mamata privately consider that the electoral successes in Birbhum could happen only because of Anubrata Mondal’s leadership,” said a source.
Trinamul insiders said morale-boosting activities in Birbhum were of “utmost importance” as dejection and factionalism were setting in.
The Trinamul dispensation will keep Mondal away from campaign optics this time. Traditionally, Mondal’s pictures alongside Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee were a mainstay in posters.
However, insiders said the decision to keep Mondal’s picture off campaign material during Mamata’s visit was a move to remove his “influential” tag that the CBI is reportedly using to prevent his bail in the cattle smuggling case.
Though Mondal is in jail, Trinamul has not replaced him as district party chief. Sources said Mamata even asked her party workers to give him a “hero’s welcome” after his release from jail. Trinamul veteran urban development minister Firhad Hakim compared Mondal to the royal Bengal tiger in public gatherings.
A Trinamul source said these helped CBI to establish him as an influential person.
Mamata is scheduled to be in Malda’s Gazole on January 31 to distribute public benefits to beneficiaries from Malda, North and South Dinajpur. Gazole is at a junction of the three north Bengal districts where the BJP has a prominent presence.
“Mamata’s meeting at Gazole is to reach out to those who voted for the BJP,” said a Malda Trinamul leader.