Though Mamata Banerjee reappointed Abhishek Banerjee as the party's general secretary, it is being analysed that she is visibly upset with the rise of Abhishek and his chosen friend, poll strategist Prashant Kishor.
New Delhi: It's a mixed bag from Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee. The other day, she abolished all office bearers ostensibly to show her nephew, Abhishek, his place in the party but has again reappointed him.
Abhishek Banerjee, Diamond Harbour MP, has been reappointed as party's general secretary, but the aunt-nephew discord seems more apparent now as Farid Hakim, a blue-eyed boy of Didi, has been made the 'working committee coordinator'.
However, most analysts feel Firhad Hakim has been promoted, given a more important role and will be expected to link the working committee and the 'party boss' Mamata.
But the Trinamool chairperson gave a broad message by making three national vice presidents – all veterans in their own ways – Yashwant Sinha, Subrata Bakshi and Chandrima Bhattacharya.
It is presumed and being analysed how Mamata Banerjee is now visibly upset with the rise of Abhishek and his chosen friend and poll strategist Prashant Kishor.
The Chief Minister has sidelined them obviously and seems to have reposed faith in her team of a selected few that includes the likes of Chandrima Bhattacharya.
Abhishek Banerjee and Prashant Kishor, in the last few months, had developed strong differences with the old guard – essentially comprising Farid Hakim, Partha Chatterjee, and a few others.
Aroop Biswas and Ms Bhattacharya are generally seen as part of the party's 'old guard team'.
Biswas has been made the party treasurer, while senior lawmaker Sukhendu Sekhar Ray was selected as the Rajya Sabha spokesperson, and Kakoli Ghosh Dostidar will be the party's Lok Sabha spokesperson.
The wings of quiz master-turned-politician Derek O' Brien have been apparently clipped as Sukhendu Sekhar Ray was made the spokesman for the party's Rajya Sabha wing. Derek was generally taking charge of interacting with the media lately.
Mamata Banerjee always has a few colleagues in her inner circle, and some of them did not survive in the same fashion for long.
While Mamata Banerjee rules her party, often with her whims and fancies, she used to depend a lot in the past on leaders such as Mukul Roy. Even Suvendu Adhikari, now in BJP and Leader of Opposition, was her trusted lieutenant in managing organisational wings and youths in particular.
At one point, leaders like Dinesh Trivedi, and Sudip Bandyopadhyay were her trusted senior colleagues. She used to address both as elder brothers. But Dinesh Trivedi was asked to step down as Railway Minister in 2012, and he has now joined the BJP.
In her new scheme of things, the party's Lok Sabha MP, Mahua Moitra, will now lead the media interactions in Delhi "nearly on a daily basis", a party source said.
Some political observers say Mamata Banerjee's 'complex' personality has created most of the crisis. She is more often a 'victim' of a notion that others could be conspiring against her.
"All along, many Congress leaders in Bengal, including Priyaranjan Das Munshialong, and Pranab Mukherjee had personal working relations with the Left. She did not. She was impatient, but Mamata was consistent with her hatred towards the Marxists," says one analyst in North Bengal.
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