Mamata Banerjee's announcement on Thursday that she would accommodate party leaders who might lose their posts in an upcoming reshuffle and try to keep a balance between the old guards and the new generation is being seen as a desperate attempt by her to keep the flock together ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

"Block presidents have been changed in many places (the list has not been announced as yet). Those block presidents who have been replaced, I want to tell them that please do not think that your role is over," said Mamata as she tried to assuage concerns even before the formal publication of the list.

The chief minister — who also told party leaders to get "good leaders" from other parties — tried to explain that the party was big enough to accommodate leaders in different organisational posts, the reassurance was aimed at addressing concerns at ground level.

"Now, we have come up with a one-man and one-post policy. If there is anyone old and feels he or she is being deprived, I will try to accommodate them.... I want all of us to remain united," Mamata had said in her unity sermon.

A source in Trinamul said the party is all set to go in for an organisational shake up across the 343-odd blocks in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, scheduled next year. The party has decided to bring at least 65 new faces as block president after the office of Abhishek Banerjee conducted a survey. The list of changes are likely to be announced shortly.

As many inside the ruling establishment apprehend that the reshuffle will lead to a fresh round of squabble in the party -- something the party cannot afford ahead of the Lok Sabha polls -- the leadership is treading cautiously.

"That is why Didi's announcement was important," said the source before adding that the leadership considers factional fights in the party as a bigger challenge than opposition parties.

A Trinamul leader said Mamata's comment on Thursday assumes significance
for the party as it had been witnessing incidents of violence and murders following infighting in different parts of the state, especially in rural areas.

On November 13, a 47-year-old Trinamul leader and husband of gram panchayat functionary Saifuddin Sheikh was shot dead in South 24 Parganas' Joynagar. A day after the first murder chief of a local gram panchayat of Amdanga in North 24 Parganas, Rupchand Mondal was killed after unknown assailants hurled crude bombs at him.

A source in the police said many of Trinamul's rural body functionaries have already started appealing to police with the demand of security personnel flagging threats to their lives.