Abhishek Banerjee spent a busy Thursday in New Delhi and Mumbai doing things his aunt is known for in the national Opposition space, as he connected with the leadership of several major regional forces in INDIA, a day after he participated in the key meeting of the anti-BJP bloc.

Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and heir apparent — in activities indicative of his growing significance and recognition in national politics — is getting increasingly comfortable in his new role as an undeniably important leader in INDIA, having delivered a tally of 29 Lok Sabha seats for the Trinamool Congress. In the non-NDA space, Trinamool is now the third-largest party, after the Congress and the SP.

During the day, the Diamond Harbour MP, along with Trinamool’s leader in the Rajya Sabha, met SP chief Akhilesh Yadav in Delhi, besides speaking to several leaders from parties such as the NCP-Sharad Pawar camp, and the RJD over the phone.

The AAP’s Sanjay Singh and Raghav Chadha visited Abhishek not long before he left for Mumbai.

At Mumbai, Abhishek is slated to meet Shiv Sena-UBT chief Uddhav Thackeray, besides others from the INDIA camp.

“He has earned this importance and is thriving in it. This is the leader we had wanted him to bloom into, something Didi (Mamata) had always aspired for him. He has delivered,” said a senior in Trinamool.

With the results, the levelheaded 36-year-old further cemented his place as the “shenapoti (general)” — as he is widely referred to in the Trinamool ecosystem — of the party, as his confident forecasts of “around 30” seats from Bengal, even after most major exit polls had predicted heavy losses, came true.

Yet another historic mandate of the Bengal election was also, in some ways, yet another referendum – after the Assembly elections of 2021 -- on Trinamool’s succession plan, made so by the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah duopoly and the saffron camp’s relentless attacks against the alleged bua-bhatija-vaad (aunt-nephew-ism), a concept they refused to abandon for the Bengal campaign.

The Diamond Harbour MP not only retained his own seat with over 68.47 per cent of the vote share and a stupendous victory margin of 7,10,930 but was also instrumental in the victory of the 28 others from his party this time.

Not once through the gruelling campaign over three months did he lose focus
on Trinamool’s core issues – such as central deprivation, the “reality” of Sandeshkhali — in the campaign for the perform-or-perish elections, leaving the task of counterattacking Modi and Shah to Mamata.

Abhishek led the campaign from the front with 72 outings this summer in addition to her 107 in the state.

He marshaled the forces behind the scenes, with countless closed-door meetings
for foolproof poll management, drawing up a unique strategy for not only each of the 42 Lok Sabha seats but also the 294 Assembly segments therein. He was also instrumental in the selection of the candidates and micromanaging every aspect of the party’s campaign.

Abhishek was instrumental in keeping the morale up for the party’s rank and file, after the disappointing predictions of the exit polls, instructed them to keep their chin up, as there was no way the BJP was going to cross a dozen seats in the state this time.

“The saffron gamble created a perception, a narrative in Bengal against Abhishek failed monumentally, dealing them a body blow it might take a while to recuperate from,” said a Trinamool MP.

“Meanwhile, Abhishek has become an INDIA showstopper,” he added.