Nearly a week after Mamata Banerjee abolished all posts in the Trinamul Congress and retained her primacy as chairperson, her nephew and heir-apparent, Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee was reinstated as the all-India general secretary of the party, while one of Mamata’s key aides, Calcutta mayor Firhad Hakim, was handed over the responsibility of coordinating between the newly formed national working committee and the party chief.

These decisions were taken at the first national working committee meeting of the Trinamul, chaired by Mamata which went on for nearly two hours on Friday.

Hakim’s elevation is significant as it would not give Abhishek the free hand that he had in the first seven months as the head of the organisation, with the mayor acting as the liaison between him and the chief minister. The elevations make it clear that Abhishek’s push for the one-man one-post in the party has been firmly thrown out of the window, at least for the time being.

“Abhishek himself had said that the number of people holding multiple posts was not more than six – seven per cent. Now that many are holding multiple posts, it would appear there is both a crisis of talent as well as trust deficit,” said a senior Trinamul leader.

Along with the general secretary, Mamata has also appointed three vice-presidents, Yashwant Sinha, Subrata Bakshi and Chandrima Bhattacharya.

Both Hakim and Chandrima are ministers as well and have also been given organisational responsibilities. Hakim also has the additional responsibility of being the First Citizen of Calcutta as mayor. His cabinet colleague and another known Mamata acolyte Aroop Biswas is the new treasurer of the party.

The former Union finance minister Yashwant Sinha, apart from being one of the vice-presidents, will also serve in a committee to decide economic and foreign policy along with the former Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra.

Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Shekhar Roy and Lok Sabha MPs Mahua Maitra and Kakali Ghosh Dastidar will be the national spokespersons for the party.

One of the biggest gainers in this round of reshuffle within the organisation was Sabyasachi Dutta, the renegade Trinamul leader who had joined the BJP before the 2021 Assembly polls. Having lost the elections, Sabyasachi returned to his former party and was eyeing the post of mayor of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation.

Mamata, however, has kept her faith in another close aide Krishna Chakraborty, declaring her mayor of Bidhannagar while Sabyasachi was named chairperson.

“No other leader, not even Mukul Roy, has been given any prize post within the party or any government body. In that sense, Sabyasachi has recovered some lost ground,” said a Trinamul source.

Ram Chakraborty was named the Chandernagore mayor and Bidhan Upadhyay, the Asansl mayor.

A WhatsApp group has also been formed with all the lead party functionaries.