KOLKATA: Since its inception way back in the year 1998, probably for the first time organisational elections will be taking place in Trinamool Congress with lots of new thoughts and in a completely changed political scenario.
Trinamool Congress was formed by Mamata Banerjee after separating herself from Congress, as a party Trinamool Congress through lots of ups and downs. Through long struggles and democratic movement Trinamool Congress is now the ruling party in West Bengal. In such a situation organisational polls are extremely crucial.
On Tuesday, the party general secretary Partha Chattopadhyay said that the organisational polls will be conducted on 2 February. This will be for the first time that there will be a separate national working committee, which will be elected through polls. For the next three months there will be reshuffles in the organisational structure of the party. The delegates and voters' list will be finalised by 25 January and the name of the poll observer will be announced.
The entire process will be completed by March 31. A notification on the organisational polls will be issued soon. Now some questions automatically arise. The first is what is going to be new in the organisational polls this year that will make Trinamool Congress more acceptable at the national level.
There are allegations against Trinamool Congress that in this matter only Mamata Banerjee matters and the other leaders are just her yes-men. So naturally, the political observers and experts have doubts on how far the process of the organizational polls can be democratic in a party like Trinamool Congress.Senior Trinamool Congress leader and the West Bengal Agriculture Minister Sovandeb Chattopadhya told ETV Bharat that it is natural that a leader like Mamata Banerjee will always have the final say in any decision. "But at the same time she always consults the other leaders in the party before taking a decision. She always makes a balance in the party organization," he said.
Dynasty politics like Congress?
However, sources said that the political ambience in Trinamool Congress will still be concentrated and limited to one family. Political science professor, Rajive Chowdhury said there is similarity in the political cultures of Congress and Trinamool Congress. "Just as Congress politics is incomplete without Gandhi family, similarly, in Trinamool Congress everything is incomplete without Mamata Banerjee and her family," he said.
But, will organisational restructuring in Trinamool Congress bring about internal democracy in the party? Wait and watch.
However, the former registrar of Calcutta University Rajagopal Dhar Chakraborty feels that the organisation polls in Trinamool Congress definitely has a different dimension this time. "Now the party is seriously trying to spread its base outside West Bengal. Previously they also made some experiments on this count but those attempts were not as serious like what it is this time. So naturally, if the leaders from other states are not allowed berths in important committees then emotional links between the party and leaders from outside West Bengal cannot be developed. There lies the relevance of the national working committee. There is the importance in bringing amendments in the party constitutions. Now it is to be seen that organisational polls in Trinamool Congress this time are mere eye-wash or will it really establish a true inner- party democracy," he said.
