As internal rifts widened in the Trinamool Congress, reports claimed that Abhishek Banerjee, nephew of CM Mamata and the second most powerful person in the party, was ready to step down from all organisational posts. Telegraph quoted a source from the party: “Yes, Abhishek has expressed a desire to step down after Monday’s election in Goa and continue as nothing other than the Diamond Harbour MP. Didi thinks it is nothing but a blackmailing strategy. Right now, she is in no mood to dissuade him”.
The infighting in the ruling TMC escalated on Friday as leaders considered to be close to party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee took to Twitter to advocate the "one person one post" policy, according to which a member of the party should be allowed to hold just one position. Mamata had set aside that rule for the Kolkata civic polls, resulting in the ire of Abhishek and many of his supporters including party functionaries Aditi Gayen and Akash Banerjee. A section of old guards, including Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim, termed the move as violation of party discipline.
Mamata Banerjee has convened an emergency meeting of the party's top officials at her residence on Saturday evening, with six senior leaders including Abhishek, secretary general Partha Chatterjee, state party president Subrata Bakshi, and ministers Firhad Hakim, Aroop Biswas and Chandrima Bhattacharya. The meeting will be crucial in understanding how the dispute will be resolved.
That there were disagreements within the party was well known to almost all political watchers. The dispute between Mamata and Abhishek first came out in the open over imposing strict COVID-19 restrictions in the state. While Banerjee kept the restrictions very liberally despite the surge in cases and allowed events like the Gangasagar Mela on Makar Sankranti, Abhishek is of the opinion that all religious and political congregations should be banned in the state. He even said that he was "perturbed" at what was happening. "The situation is very bad across the country and there should be no religious or political meetings," Abhishek said.
Scores of monks had gathered at Gangasagar in January, from different states without even wearing the masks. Mamata, however, does not want to hurt the religious sentiments and allowed the event. Nearly five lakh people assemble at Gangasagar every year on Makar Sankranti. Abhishek has asked the administration to arrest people who do not follow COVID protocol. Following his strong stand, police have started picking up maskless people in Kolkata.
Banerjee, however, is not in favour of taking such harsh measures. She had told Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a recent video conference that she could not stop the running of economy as the state is reeling under acute funds crisis. Banerjee has also refused to stop local train services, close markets or even to impose micro-level lockdowns.
