Trinamul has decided to reshuffle its organisation in several Bengal districts, where the ruling dispensation has apparently found organisational weaknesses, so as to sharpen its combat against the BJP ahead of the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
A source in Bengal's ruling party said the process of planning the rejig has begun, and it would come into force after a set of talks with the party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
“Abhishek Banerjee is back in Calcutta (from the US for treatment). The party has gathered the names of a set of leaders from various districts who would be brought to the frontline for next year (polls). However, the changes will be finalised after getting not only his nod but also that of our supreme leader (chief minister and Trinamul supremo Mamata Banerjee),” said a senior Trinamul leader in Calcutta.
According to him, in districts such as East and West Midnapore, Birbhum, Hooghly, Malda, and Murshidabad, flaws in party organisation were found in the panchayat poll season.
A similar exercise played a major role in the 2021 Assembly elections, when changes in organisational structure in Jungle Mahal, deemed a BJP stronghold, helped Trinamul to bag more seats than expected. Trinamul won 28 of the 40 Assembly seats in Jungle Mahal where the BJP had led in 31 Assembly segments in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
East Midnapore has two organisational districts, Tamluk and Contai. Veteran Soumen Mahapatra, a former minister, heads the one in Tamluk, and Egra MLA Tarun Maity the one in Contai.
A source said the party has plans for change in both organisational districts in East Midnapore, the backyard of the BJP's Nandigram MLA and the leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari.
“The party spotted some weaknesses there during the rural polls, where the BJP captured several rural bodies. The party does not want to yield any ground to the BJP, and wants both Lok Sabha seats from the district,” said the source.
Trinamul is giving East Midnapore more notice since Adhikari’s defection to the BJP before the Assembly polls, more so after his contentious victory over Mamata in the Nandigram Assembly seat by a thin margin and the saffron camp's rural poll performance on Adhikari's turf.
Birbhum is also a priority district for the rejig as Trinamul is undergoing an organisational crisis since last year's arrest of district party president Anubrata Mondal by the CBI.
A Trinamul insider said the party is planning to split Birbhum into two organisational districts, Birbhum and Bolpur.
“The party did not think of splitting Birbhum into two organisational districts for as long as Anubrata Mondal was here. But now it is under consideration of the chief minister, who directly handles party affairs in Birbhum in his absence,” said a Trinamul leader.
If so, a senior leader and MLA from the Rampurhat subdivision is likely to get the onus of Birbhum and an MLA and close aide of Mondal from the Bolpur subdivision is likely to get that of Bolpur.
