A New Era Begins

TRINAMOOL CONGRESS

- Romita Datta

The anointment of Abhishek Banerjee as Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary, on June 5, couldn’t have come at a more opportune time for the party. Emboldened by her landslide election victory that gave her a third term on the trot, Mamata Banerjee wasted no time initiating a revamp of the TMC and entrusting her 33-year-old nephew with the task of taking the party beyond the borders of Bengal. The project, which was to begin with the Northeast and parts of Uttar Pradesh, had gone into cold storage with Mukul Roy’s exit from the party in 2017.

Under Abhishek, the TMC’s expansion drive might be more watchful and result-oriented than anything his predecessors have attempted. He says the party will not enter other states for a token presence or just a few assembly or Lok Sabha seats—it will go for victories when the time is right. A larger aim is to challenge the BJP at a national level.

“He says little but he makes sense,” says Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, TMC Rajya Sabha MP, who is part of Abhishek’s inner circle (see graphic overleaf). Lavishing praise on Abhishek, Ray says he has rarely, in his 50-year-long political career, seen a young leader of such maturity. Like him, many others in the TMC see Abhishek as the natural inheritor of Mamata’s political legacy, though Didi has never made her succession plan public. It’s not likely she will. Mamata would rather have her party organically pick its future leader, and by delegating key organisational and other responsibilities to Abhishek, she is hoping to see him grow into roles.