KOLKATA: In recent times, Trinamool Congress had been in the news for the simmering cold war between the party supremo and West Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, and the party’s national general secretary and the chief minister’s nephew, Abhishek Banerjee.
Facing a revolt from heavyweight party insiders is nothing new for Mamata Banerjee since Trinamool Congress’s inception in 1998. First, it was Ajit Panja, then Sudip Bandyopadhyay, and then late Subrata Mukherjee— she has faced revolts from many such heavyweights. But every time the rebel leader had to succumb and compromise, accepting her supreme leadership. But how difficult is the current revolt for the Chief Minister, considering that the revolt has brewed from inside her family?
Late Ajit Panja, the former Union Broadcasting and Coal Minister, was considered as the Man Friday for Mamata Banerjee in the early days of the journey of the Trinamool Congress. However, the relationship between the two started deteriorating and Panja was forced to quit the party. That was virtually the end of the political career of Panja, one of the most colorful politicians of his time.
Similarly, Subrata Mukherjee, whom Mamata Banerjee herself once considered as her political mentor, had an extremely cordial relationship with her. That’s why Mukherjee was the first choice as the Kolkata mayor when Trinamool Congress for the first time formed a board in Kolkata Municipal Corporation in 2000. Then fissures developed between the two, and Mukherjee went back to Congress. However, he accepted Mamata Banerjee as the supreme leader and returned to Trinamool Congress before the 2011 West Bengal assembly elections. Later, he became the Panchayat Minister in Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet, the post which he held till his demise last year.
Another example is that of Mukul Roy, who was with Mamata Banerjee since 1998. In fact, after Mamata Banerjee became the Chief Minister of West Bengal in 2011, she handed over the organizational responsibilities of the entire party to Mukul Roy as the then national general secretary of the party.
However, in the shadow of the Saradha and Narada scandals, distance developed between the two, and Mukul Roy was virtually forced to quit Trinamool Congress and join BJP. But after the 2016 Assembly elections, he came back to Trinamool Congress accepting Mamata Banerjee as the supreme leader.
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The latest cold war is between the Chief Minister and her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, currently the party’s national general secretary, over a host of issues especially the one on “One Person, One post.” Abhishek Banerjee started figuring in the limelight in the last days of Mukul Roy as the party’s national general secretary and after Roy’s exit, he became the second man in Trinamool Congress in the true sense. However, the current cold war between the duo is more serious than the earlier revolts from party heavyweights that Mamata Banerjee had to face, feel political observers.
They say that the current cold war is more serious because it is not just a war for power. Rather it is a war within the Banerjee family and there is all possibility that the outcome would be different from what it was in the past.
According to political analyst and the former registrar of Calcutta University, Rajagopal Dhar Chakraborty, there is a difference between the uprising of Abhishek Banerjee and the other rebel political heavyweights in the past. “The earlier rebel leaders came to the limelight because of their own charisma, political foresight, and immense public relations exercise," he said.
"However, Abhishek Banerjee’s rise is purely because of the patronage of Mamata Banerjee. Since Abhishek Banerjee hails from the Banerjee family and his control within the party is more hereditary than the political heavyweights of the past. He was virtually the second man within the party since his first day in politics. However, if the second man, who is having blood relations with the party supremo, is in a rebellious mood, it becomes difficult to bring that rebellion under control. But till now Mamata Banerjee had been able to control that rebellion to an extent. Only time will say what will happen in the future,” he added.
Concurring the same view, political analyst and former principal of the then Presidency College, Dr. Amal Kumar Mukhopadhyay, says that the current air of rebellion within Trinamool Congress is much tough from what it was in the past. “The rebellion now is coming from within the family and hence it is more difficult to handle it. In my opinion, the current simmering cold war will take nastier shapes in the long run and that will be the beginning of the end for Trinamool Congress,” he said.
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