Posters of Abhishek Banerjee with promise of a new TMC create a flutter

Differences between the party’s old guard and new leadership have come to fore lately

Posters of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Abhishek Banerjee claiming that in the next six months, the people of the State will see a new Trinamool have triggered speculation in the party’s rank and file. Several such posters, with photographs of Mr. Banerjee promising a “new and reformed” TMC could be seen in south Kolkata over the past few days.

“In next six months, a new Trinamool will surface, the way common people want,” the poster with the photograph of the party general secretary says. Interestingly, the posters do not have any mention of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Before Mr. Abhishek Banerjee’s rise in the party, there was hardly any major party campaign where the Chief Minister’s photograph was missing. 

The party’s spokesperson, Kunal Ghosh, said that there was nothing wrong in such posters, and that they could have been “the work of over-enthusiastic party workers“. “On several occasions, Abhishek Banerjee has said that we need to learn and improve ourselves. We need to fulfil the aspirations of the masses,” Mr. Ghosh said. 

The development comes at a time when the TMC is facing heat over the arrest of party heavyweights — Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal and former Minister Partha Chatterjee. While the TMC leadership has dumped Mr. Chatterjee, party chairperson Ms. Mamata Banerjee on August 14 put her weight behind Mr. Mondal. The party’s initial reaction after Mr. Mondal’s arrest was that it maintains “zero tolerance towards corruption”.

In February this year, differences between the party’s old guard and new leadership had come to fore. Party chairperson Ms. Mamata Banerjee dissolved all party committees and had reappointed Mr. Abhishek Banerjee as the party’s general secretary. State Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said that the posters were an indication of inner feuds within the TMC. “Over the past year, inner feuds of the Trinamool have been in the open,” Mr. Chowdhury said. The five time Congress MP from Behrampore in Murshidabad, however, added that Ms. Mamata Banerjee will remain the TMC’s driving force in future.