Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee seized the first opportunity of interaction with her party leaders to provide an ultimatum to the squabbling old guard versus new blood debaters to stop voicing their opinions in public or else stay prepared for strict disciplinary action that would include the possibility of expulsion.
In a preparatory meeting for the upcoming 2024 general elections with leaders of West Midnapore district at her Kalighat residence in south Calcutta, Banerjee was learnt to have expressed her “deep displeasure” of the roles played by a section of state-level spokespersons of the party in the recent past and set the course for identifying new spokespersons for the party.
Of late, deep fissures within the ruling Trinamul dispensation in Bengal surfaced with public comments from top leaders of the party on either side of the divide flying thick and fast over whether the young brigade should replace the experienced old-timers in top positions within the party and in public offices.
Besides Banerjee who chaired the meeting on Wednesday, the meeting was attended by party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and Subrata Bakshi, the state president of the Trinamul Congress, both of whom were recently engaged in raising sharp and opposing opinions on the raging debate. A comment from Bakshi at a Trinamul’s foundation day public meeting on January 1 justifying the need for certain experienced campaigners to remain at the helm of party affairs came under sharp attack from party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh, widely perceived to be Abhishek Banerjee’s mouthpiece, who advocated the efficacy for young leaders, an issue that was brought to the party’s forefront by Banerjee ahead of the 2021 state polls.
As late as last Sunday at a public programme in Diamond Harbour, Abhishek himself categorically asserted his opinion that younger people in the party work more than their aged counterparts since “age gives them a natural advantage”. He had claimed, though, there were no differences between old and young leaders in the TMC and certainly no rift in the party over the issue.
Subsequent to the Bakshi-Ghosh war of words, verbal battles were publicly fought between leaders like Sudip Banyopadhyay and Tapas Roy, Arjun Singh and Somnath Shyam with Ghosh publicly reprimanding Singh for his comments and veteran leaders like Saugata Roy, Kalyan Banerjee and Abdul Karim Chowdhury taking their respective sides in the debate.
“Enough has been said in public domain,” Banerjee was learned to have said in the meeting. “Stop doing such activities which are detrimental to the party’s interest. Leaders who have been assigned specific roles to play in the party must stick to them,” a source confirmed Banerjee telling party leaders. “She expressed her disgust at the way a section of leaders took to social media to attack their adversaries within the party,” the leader said.
Interestingly, the party supremo assigned Subrata Bakshi and Abhishek Banerjee to jointly undertake the task of identifying new spokespersons in the party.
“She asked us to remain united and take our fight to the people. There might be differences of opinion at individual levels but that has to be discussed inside the party and should not be spoken outside,” said Manas Bhunia, minister and Sabang MLA, while briefing reporters after the meeting.
“Not only in Bengal, there are old and new generations in India and across the world,” Bhunia continued. “You have found a ‘news item’ and keep on sensationalising it. But, there is no such old versus new guard in the party. Remember Mamata Banerjee will lead and her Chief General is Abhishek Banerjee,” he maintained.
“Abhishek Banerjee is our chief general and he said that he will perform all the duties given by Mamata Banerjee and the party,” he added.
“We have no quarrel among ourselves. Our Chairperson has blessed us today and now we will reap the crops with the blessings of the people. The candidates for the MP elections will be finalised by the party,” Bhunia stated.
A Trinamul Congress post on the meeting on its X handle read: “We remain committed to the welfare of people and will unitedly fight the BJP’s tyranny.”