Trinamool Congress forms new national working committee amid reports of internal rift

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Saturday announced the formation of a new 20-member national working committee of the party, NDTV reported.

Party leader Partha Chatterjee said that apart from Banerjee as the chairperson, nobody has been given a designation in the new committee.

“These will be decided by the chairperson and will be announced later,” he said at a press conference, according to PTI.

The committee was formed amid reports of a rift between the senior party leaders and a faction reportedly led by Abhishek Banerjee – nephew of the party chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Abhishek Banerjee is said to have been promoting a “one person, one post” policy within the party, a move resented by some of the senior leaders who hold multiple posts, PTI reported. The formation of the new committee means that Abhsishek Banerjee is no longer the national general secretary of the party.

Apart from Mamata Banerjee and her nephew, the new committee includes senior party leaders Amit Mitra, Subrata Bakshi, Sudip Bandopadhyay Anubrata Mondal, Aroop Biswas and Firhad Hakim among others, PTI reported.

The party’s leader in the Rajya Sabha Derek O’ Brien and Lok Sabha MP Sougata Roy have not been included in the committee, according to PTI.

On February 10, several young leaders of the Trinamool Congress had tweeted in support of the “one person, one post” policy. Roy had earlier said that the “one per one post” policy was “very much acceptable” to him as it decentralises power, according to News18.

However, Hakim, who is also Kolkata’s mayor, had said that putting up social media posts without taking consent of party leaders was “tantamount to violation of its discipline”, according to PTI.

“A section of people are trying to spread misleading messages through social media posts,” Hakim had said. “The party doesn’t support this theory of one person one post.”