The Trinamul Congress leadership has informally asked its leaders and spokespersons to steer clear of publicly pitching Mamata Banerjee as the Prime Ministerial candidate of INDIA next year.

The Bengal chief minister herself had cleared the air on the matter in her Martyrs’ Day rally on Friday, saying she was but a soldier in the 26-party Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance to save the idea of India and was not greedy for the post.

A source in Trinamul said the instruction was conveyed, verbally, after the top leadership had received information about comments from a section of its leaders on the issue since the formation of INDIA in Bangalore last week.

“After the INDIA was formed, many leaders started commenting in public that Didi (Mamata) would be the Prime Minister. It was clear from her July 21 speech that she does not want such comments from the party as it would send a wrong message to other members of the alliance and aid the BJP in its counter-propaganda,” said the source.

Mamata, during her 41-minute speech at the Martyrs’ Day rally, had asserted that she was not tempted by the prospect of the chair of the Prime Minister, but was interested in ensuring the political departure of the BJP from the helm of the nation.

“We don’t care for the chair.... We don’t want any chair,” she had said while speaking to an audience of lakhs at Esplanade here.

A Trinamul leader said the same message of Mamata had been conveyed to the party’s spokespersons and other functionaries.

After the INDIA had been announced in Bangalore, and the leaders had come to know that the name had been given by Mamata, many of them started sending out the message to the party’s rank and file that she would be the Prime Ministerial face.

At a news conference in Bolpur on July 18, Trinamul’s Birbhum MP Satabdi Roy had said the party expected to see Mamata as the Prime Minister. A section of Trinamul leaders in districts was also found active on social media making similar statements.

“We always want that our Didi, our leader should be the Prime Minister. We don’t know what will happen, but our expectation is to see Didi rule the country,” Roy said.

At the Martyrs’ Rally, many workers and leaders from the districts came with placards and posters with the message: Lokhyo 2024, Didi k PM chai (Target 2024, We want Didi as the PM)”.

Trinamul leaders said Mamata’s message on July 21 was very clear to the rank and file that she wanted to work as a solider of the strongest Opposition unity against Narendra Modi because of multiple reasons.

First, such a message could invite a conflict, especially between Trinamul and the Congress, and Trinamul and the CPM. The Bengal units of the CPM and the Congress are averse to the tie-up with Trinamul.

Second, in 2019 and thereafter, the saffron ecosystem often mocked Mamata’s attempts at forging a national alliance by suggesting she was eyeing the chair of the Prime Minister. Trinamul does not want to send such a message this time as any crack in the alliance will benefit the BJP.

“We are saying this clearly, that we want the political departure of the BJP from the country because it is becoming impossible to tolerate them,” Mamata had said on Friday.