Mamata Banerjee took over complete control of the Trinamul Congress as she abolished all other posts in the party to form a 20-member national working committee headed by her to oversee the party’s functioning.

Initially a16-member committee was formed that included her nephew Abhishek Banerjee, Amit Mitra, Partha Chatterjee, Subrata Bakshi, Kakali Ghosh Dastidar, Ashima Patra, Anubrata Mondal, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Buluchiki Baraik, Rajib Tripathi, Sudip Banerjee, Moloy Ghatak, Sukhendu Shekhar Ray, Gautam Deb and Jyotipriya Mullick.

Later, four others were named to complete the committee. They are known Mamata acolytes Firhad Hakim, Aroop Biswas, oldest Trinamul minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay and BJP import and former Union finance minister Yashwant Sinha.

“Most of the leaders who have found a place in the committee are party old-timers. Someone like Yashwant Sinha has been included as he is a well-known face in Indian politics,” said a Trinamul source.

Partha Chatterjee, who had held the post of the party’s secretary-general for more than two decades, said, “Mamata is the chairperson, and she will soon decide on the posts.”

As several members of the party old guard were against sticking to a one-man, one-post norm, Abhishek, who has been an advocate of such a norm within the party organisation, expressed his desire to step down as the party general secretary. With the dissolution of all posts, Mamata has saved that embarrassment, though not entirely. With the induction of veterans in the national working committee, Abhishek will be in a minority even if he is re-nominated as the all-India general secretary. That would not be a happy circumstance for him to work in the party.

To those close to him, Abhishek had set a deadline for Monday to step down, after the completion of the voting process in Goa, where he is leading the campaign. Mamata has also kept out political strategist Prashant Kishor, who had helped her tide over rising anti-incumbency and popular anger over electoral manipulation during the 2018 panchayat polls, when large number of seats went to the Trinamul kitty uncontested.

Four years later, a repeat is being seen in the run up to the upcoming civic body polls scheduled for later this month. Mamata went into Saturday’s meeting at a time when the aura of invincibility that the Trinamul has enveloped itself in the last decade had been fading with signs of fissures appearing from within.

That the meeting was called on a day when four municipal corporations in the state went to polls indicates how crucial Mamata considers the developments within her party and family to be.

Among those present at the meeting were Abhishek, the party's secretary general Partha Chatterjee, state president Subrata Bakshi, Mayor Firhad Hakim, Lok Sabha MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay and minister Chandrima Bhattacharya.

With the Opposition completely in disarray since its rout in the Assembly and subsequent by-polls, trouble for the Trinamul can only come from within. And the differences between Abhishek and most of the older leaders of the party is an indication of that. Mamata so far has tried to strike a balance between the two.

While no one in the Trinamul can dare or has ever expressed any opposition to Abhishek’s ascension to the top of the party’s echelons, his ties with the old guard represented by the likes of Partha Chatterjee, Subrata Bakshi, Firhad Hakim and others have been testy.

Since his elevation, Abhishek has been pushing hard for the one-man, one-post rule in the party, which was believed to have the approval of Mamata herself till Hakim burst the bubble on Friday. While the old associates of Mamata feel threatened by Abhishek’s insistence on bringing a kind of discipline into the party, within the family some of his cousins have rallied behind him, an unforeseen event in the Banerjee household of Harish Chatterjee Street, which has always presented a united face.

In private, on Thursday, Abhishek had expressed the desire to step down as the general secretary after the Goa polls on Monday but remain the Lok Sabha MP. Mamata herself has not made any public statement so far to reassure her favourite nephew.

In the last few months, especially before the Calcutta Municipal Corporation polls, the distance between Kalighat and Camac Street (where Abhishek has his office) has grown manifold. Mamata had rejected most of the candidates in the list prepared by poll strategist Prashant Kishor’s team.

Abhishek’s proximity to PK and I-Pac is believed to be the reason behind Bengal’s most powerful aunt and nephew not seeing eye to eye.