ABHISHEK TO THE FORE

The black SUV screeched to a halt outside the new Trinamool Congress (TMC) office on EM Bypass, Kolkata.

- Romita Datta

Clad in a kurta-pyjama, Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee stepped out and waved to the small crowd hanging around for a dekko, their curiosity piqued by the security bandobast. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s 35-year-old nephew had arrived for a press conference. Four senior TMC leaders had taken their seats; an imposing chair was kept vacant. Almost a quasicoronation, reflecting the winds of change that have swept into the TMC’s sails.

Abhishek took questions—even unsavoury ones, quite unruffled. To anyone watching, the message communicated itself through that very self-assurance: the next generation of the party leadership is ready to hit the showrooms. The presser on July 28 was Abhishek’s first after former state minister and party veteran Partha Chatterjee fell into the dragnet cast by the Enforcement Directorate, which is probing the money trail in the alleged teachers’ recruitment scam. Though the party had distanced itself from Chatterjee, it flailed around for days, with Mamata talking about the BJP’s “vendetta politics”.