Trinamul’s organisation reshuffle was most striking in Jungle Mahal districts of Jhargram, Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore and north Bengal where the party had fared badly in the last Lok Sabha polls.

The BJP bagged five out of six Lok Sabha seats and Trinamul lagged behind the BJP in 31 of 40 Assembly segments in the Jungle Mahal. The poor show in the region, once considered as a stronghold of Trinamul, necessitated the change, said a source in the party.

“Undoubtedly, the most surprising feature of the reshuffle is the inclusion of the face of the Lalgarh movement, Chhatradhar Mahato, in the state committee,” said a source.

Dulal Murmu, the party’s two-term MLA of Nayagram, was appointed as the new Jhargram district president. He replaced Birbaha Soren Tudu, the party’s face in Jhargram who unsuccessfully contested last Lok Sabha election.

The second significant change was in Purulia where minister and party’s district president Santiram Mahato was replaced by Gurupada Tudu, husband of minister of state Sandhya Rani Tudu and a functionary of Purulia zilla parishad.

The fact that Trinamul would focus on the Jungle Mahal was clear with the inclusion of Mriganko Mahato, former Purulia MP, in the 21 member state co-ordination committee.

In Bankura where the BJP bagged two Lok Sabha seats in 2019, Trinamul had given the steering to party’s Bishnupur MLA and minister Shyamal Santra who replaced Subhasish Batabyal.

The overall plan to assign responsibilities to people with mass connect was clear with the changes in north Bengal as MP Shanta Chhetri got a berth in the seven-member steering committee. Three prominent leaders from north Bengal — Arpita Ghosh, Hiten Barman and Goutam Deb —were included in the state coordination committee.
Arpita Ghosh was removed as district president of South Dinajpur and was replaced by Gautam Das. In Cooch Behar, Partha Pratim Roy was appointed as the new district president.