Aunty incumbency factor

Abhishek Banerjee had been steadily taking over the Trinamool Congress, but Mamata is not yet ready to let go

-  RABI BANERJEE

The many questions about Mamata Banerjee’s political successor seemed to have been answered for good when Suvendu Adhikari, her close associate for a long time, quit the Trinamool Congress in December 2020. Abhishek Banerjee— Lok Sabha member from Diamond Harbour, and son of Mamata’s brother Amit—looked all set to fill his aunt’s slippers when the time came. In fact, Abhishek’s writ ran large in the Trinamool even before Adhikari left, and that is said to be one of the reasons for his departure. Many other party veterans had also been unhappy that Abhishek was getting it on a platter, while it was their hard work and Mamata’s charisma that brought in votes. Their complaints were seldom heard and Abhishek’s grip over the party grew day by day.

Things, however, seem to have taken a sharp turn as Mamata made a dramatic announcement on February 12, abolishing all posts in the party except her own. She then formed a new committee. Abhishek was removed as national general secretary, and his close associates Kunal Ghosh, Derek O’Brien and Mahua Moitra were dropped from the committee. Abhishek is part of the 19-member committee, but others are all staunch Mamata loyalists.

Though the whiff of a rift between aunt and nephew had been doing the rounds, it became a spectacle only on February 2 at the Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata, where Trinamool leaders and workers gathered to elect Mamata as chairperson of the party—a post she has been holding since the party was formed in 1998. It was for the first time that a public event was organised for this, as if there was a need to tell the people who the leader was. And Abhishek was nowhere near Mamata on the stage.