Kolkata: The huge eruption of infighting in the Trinamool Congress that had surfaced since the first day of the New Year and is still continuing has created a new crisis in the ruling party of West Bengal before the Lok Sabha polls this year.
While infighting is not a new thing in the Trinamool Congress, political observers feel that the murkier turn that factionalism has started taking since the first day of this year that coincided with the 27th foundation day anniversary of the party, has some added political discomfort for the state’s ruling party.
First, according to observers, the multi-pronged infighting has surfaced at a time when the Trinamool Congress as well as important state government functionaries are already under pressure from the crucial stages that the Central agencies like the CBI and the ED have reached in their probes into different cases of financial irregularities and money laundering in the state.
Secondly, the recent infighting is not just scattered involving a few leaders in different pockets of West Bengal, a factor which had been common in the Trinamool Congress for a long time. Rather, the fresh infighting shows the sharp divisions within the party with the “old guards” on the one hand and “new faces” on the other hand.
What is even more worrying for the TMC is that this tussle between the “old guards” and the “new faces” is being viewed as a nasty tiff with the old loyalists of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the one side and those aligned with the party’s general secretary and Lok Sabha member Abhishek Banerjee on the other side.
Subdued tension between the “old guard” and the “new faces” had been brewing within the party for quite some time since Abhishek Banerjee floated the concept of an upper age limit for the party leadership. Although there were counter-comments from the old loyalists against the upper age limit concept, the counter reactions were so sharp that they could result in major factionalism.
The outburst happened at a programme on the occasion of the celebration of the party’s 27th foundation day anniversary at Trinamool Bhavan on January 1, by the party’s state president Subrata Bakshi, one of the veteran leaders associated with the Trinamool Congress since the party’s inception.
Bakshi, while projecting Mamata Banerjee as the principal face of the party in the Lok Sabha elections this year, said that he was confident that Abhishek Banerjee would not leave the field and continue his Lok Sabha battle for the party with Mamata Banerjee in the forefront.
The party’s state spokesman Kunal Ghosh, known to be a close confidant of Abhishek Banerjee, was prompt in reacting as he took strong exception to Bakshi’s observations regarding Abhishek Banerjee.
“Abhishek Banerjee continues to be in the field and the party will benefit if the leadership listens to what he says. I have serious reservations about the words uttered by the state president,” Ghosh said.
The floodgates of statements and counter-statements then opened with leaders from both the sides hurling verbal volleys at each other from public forums.
In the meantime, the political scene also got spiced up by nasty verbal spats between the Trinamool Congress legislator from Balagarh assembly constituency in Hooghly district, Manoranjan Byapari and heavyweight party leader from the same district, Runa Khatun, over authority in the region. The situation became worse following the ransacking of the party office of Byapari, following which the Trinamool Congress leader even advised him to keep away from his constituency for the time being.
The opposition parties including the BJP, the Congress and the CPI(M) seem to be watching the infighting in the ruling party with amusement. The opposition leaders claim that this infighting at the top level is the beginning of the process of the Trinamool Congress being totally wiped out.
Political observers feel that unless there is strict intervention by Mamata Banerjee, this infighting will take a serious turn at the time of the selection of candidates for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls with each trying to push the maximum number of candidates from its side.
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