The many questions about Mamata Banerjee’s political successor seemed to have been answered for good when Suvendu Adhikari, her close associate for a long time, quit the Trinamool Congress in December 2020. Abhishek Banerjee— Lok Sabha member from Diamond Harbour, and son of Mamata’s brother Amit—looked all set to fill his aunt’s slippers when the time came. In fact, Abhishek’s writ ran large in the Trinamool even before Adhikari left, and that is said to be one of the reasons for his departure. Many other party veterans had also been unhappy that Abhishek was getting it on a platter, while it was their hard work and Mamata’s charisma that brought in votes. Their complaints were seldom heard and Abhishek’s grip over the party grew day by day.
Things, however, seem to have taken a sharp turn as Mamata made a dramatic announcement on February 12, abolishing all posts in the party except her own. She then formed a new committee. Abhishek was removed as national general secretary, and his close associates Kunal Ghosh, Derek O’Brien and Mahua Moitra were dropped from the committee. Abhishek is part of the 19-member committee, but others are all staunch Mamata loyalists.
Though the whiff of a rift between aunt and nephew had been doing the rounds, it became a spectacle only on February 2 at the Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata, where Trinamool leaders and workers gathered to elect Mamata as chairperson of the party—a post she has been holding since the party was formed in 1998. It was for the first time that a public event was organised for this, as if there was a need to tell the people who the leader was. And Abhishek was nowhere near Mamata on the stage.
Abhishek, 34, had been steadily taking over the Trinamool, planting his own people, and openly seeking changes in the government and party to sideline senior leaders. The legal cell of the party has been revamped by him. Delhi-based lawyers were given prominence over the party’s long-term legal voice Kalyan Banerjee, who is also the chief whip of the party.
Kalyan was the first to raise his voice against Abhishek, as he was miffed by the decision to take back turncoats like Mukul Roy and Rajib Banerjee without discussing it in the party. He said Abhishek did not have the maturity to run the party. When asked, Kalyan said he stood by what he said. “I have nothing to add,” he said. “Mamata di has asked me not to speak.”
Abhishek publicly took a stand against Mamata when he called for stopping the Ganga Sagar Mela in the middle of the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. He set up separate testing protocols and administrative measures in Diamond Harbour, which, many say, was an attempt to show how his constituency was doing better than the rest of the state and, in turn, an insult to Mamata.
Mamata, however, did not take any offence until she was snubbed by I-PAC, a consulting agency managed by poll strategist Prashant Kishor. Abhishek brought in Kishor as an adviser to the Trinamool in 2019, when the BJP shocked the party by winning 18 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Since then, he had been guiding Abhishek, rather than Mamata. I-PAC played a role in the Trinamool’s spectacular victory in the 2021 assembly elections. Kishor made “a great contribution” in the victory, said Saugata Roy, the party’s tallest leader in Parliament.
I-PAC has drafted candidate lists for the Trinamool in 102 municipalities that are going to the polls on February 27. The lists ruffled many feathers in the party and protests broke out all over the state. Mamata is said to have had a heated discussion with Kishor and there have been reports that he had ended the relationship. Kishor, however, told THE WEEK they were “nothing but highly speculative”.
Many senior leaders believe Abhishek is playing into the hands of the BJP. He has been a target of the Enforcement Directorate and the CBI in connection with coal and cattle smuggling cases. ED had questioned his wife, Rujira, in Delhi and Kolkata in money laundering cases.
“Has he fallen into the trap of CAA and NRC?” asked former minister Madan Mitra. He said there was no question of accepting any leader other than Mamata. “I was in jail (in the Saradha scam case) for 23 months. I did not ditch her and she did not ditch me. Where is the question of having another leader? Abhishek is too young,” he said.
Ironically, it was Abhishek’s ascent in the party that led to the exodus of many popular leaders. Those who remained in the party supported him, but now they are upset that the returned defectors are with Abhishek, and not Mamata.
Abhishek’s supporters, however, dismiss these theories. “The sole target of the BJP leaders was Abhishek,” said Jahangir Khan, a Trinamool leader in South 24 Parganas. “People rejected them, which means the allegations were fake. What is wrong with being his followers?”
Mamata and Abhishek are said to have different opinions on how the Trinamool should grow nationally. While he is in favour of going slow and being in alliance with the Congress, Mamata wants to go solo. Also, he expects to get the chief minister’s chair when she leaves for Delhi, but Mamata seems to have no intention of vacating it any time soon. In fact, Abhishek told his close circle that “all politicians should retire between 65 and 70”.
Mamata has started a clean up in the bureaucracy, and it said that she would remove all those close to Abhishek once she is back from campaigning in Uttar Pradesh.
The rift is a godsend for the BJP, which has been seeing large-scale defections after the big loss in the assembly elections last year. “Wait and watch,” said Dilip Ghosh, national vice president of the party. “Day by day, the fissure will widen. The Central agencies should have acted by now. I don’t know what is holding them back. Perhaps the Uttar Pradesh elections.”