CM blends youth with experience in rejig for West Bengal 2021 polls

KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee did a shake-up of her party organization to carry out the 2021 Bengal assembly poll strategy she had laid out in her first virtual rally two days ago.
Banerjee undertook the shuffle fast when Bengal BJP leaders were busy discussing ‘poribartan’ plans for the state with the party brass in New Delhi.
The Trinamool chief made room for youth with an eye on the future and blended it with experience, efficiency and loyalty while shaping the district units and the three-tier state-level organization — state coordination committee, state committee and apex core committee.The three-tier committees have accommodated all party functionaries so that no one feels left out.
Chhatradhar Mahato, former People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA) leader and face of the Maoist-backed Jangalmahal stir during Left Front regime, has made his way into the Trinamool state committee as secretary, months after he joined the party in 2020 following his release from jail.
Former Rajya Sabha member and CPM-turned-Trinamool politician Ritabrata Bandyopadhyay too has been inducted as secretary in the state committee. Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra, given his experience, is the new vice-president.
Trinamool’s Nadia MP Mahua Moitra is president of Nadia unit and former Indian cricketer-turned-minister of state Laxmi Ratan Shukla is Howrah Sadar president. Party’s Cooch Behar MP Partha Pratim Roy has been inducted as district president replacing minister Rabindranath Ghosh. Thespian-turned-politician Arpita Ghosh has been removed as Dakshin Dinajpur president; Goutam Das has taken over.
A seven-member core committee is on top of the state coordination committee for policy-making and execution. Transport minister Suvendu Adhikari and Trinamool MPs Kalyan Bandyopadhyay and Shanta Chhetri are among the new members.
TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee also found a place both in the core committee and the 21-member steering committee, indicating he is likely to take a larger role in the 2021 assembly polls.
Banerjee has done away with the district observer post. Instead, she is looking at a collective leadership with individuals accountable to the party core committee. The decision assumes significance when individual leaders such as Adhikari have been in charge of a number of districts.
A look at the organizational shuffle indicates that the Trinamool chief has paid special attention to districts where the party faced reverses in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Banerjee has opted for an overhaul in Jangalmahal and districts in north Bengal. Two Adivasi faces, Dulal Murmu and Gurupada Tudu, are the new district presidents of Jhargram and Purulia, possibly with an eye on the districts’ demography. Jitendra Tewary is president of Paschim Burdwan unit. According to party insiders, Malda remains a bother.
In south Bengal, food minister Jyotipriya Mullick continues as North 24 Parganas president and Sisir Adhikari the president of Purba Medinipur unit. With MoS Shukla taking over as Howrah (urban) district president, minister Arup Roy has been elevated as district chairman for both Howrah (rural and urban) and minister Rajib Bandyopadhyay as coordinator. Debashis Kumar continues as South Kolkata president with party senior Subrata Mukherjee as chairman. The North Kolkata president’s post remains vacant. Trinamool’s Lok Sabha leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay will nurse the organization as district chairman.