Mamata reposes faith in Abhishek by reappointing him as TMC gen secy packs new panel with loyalists
Kolkata Feb 18 PTI West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday reappointed her nephew Abhishek Banerjee as TMC national general secretary as she constituted the new office bearers team packing it mainly with old-timers loyal to herThe party brought back Yashwant Sinha as its national vice-presidentTwo other senior leaders Subrata Bakshi and Chandrima Bhattacharya have also been given the vice-presidents post in the organisationBanerjees trusted lieutenant and housing minister Firhad Hakim has been given the charge of coordination between her and the national working committee while state minister Aroop Biswas has been appointed as the national treasurerRajya Sabha chief whip Sukhendu Shekhar Ray and Lok Sabha MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar are the new party spokespersons of Parliaments upper and lower houses respectivelyKrishnanagar MP Mahua Moitra has been assigned the job of interacting with the mediaTMCs Rajya Sabha party leader Derek O Brien who had been serving as the partys chief national spokesperson did not feature in the listPolitical observers feel Abhisheks return as national general secretary the de-facto number two in the organisation has sent out a message indicating that he would remain the heir apparent amid the internal strife between the old guard and the next-generation leadershipThe TMC boss also seems to have mollified some of the old-timers by giving them plum posts in the committee and thus stifling the growing clamour for one party one post by some of the younger leaders in the partyThree defectors from the Congress Sushmita Dev and Subal Bhowmik and Mukul Sangma have been made TMCs in-charge of the northeastBanerjee has assigned the job of preparing the partys draft policy on economic and external affairs to her principal chief adviser Amit Mitra and Yashwant SinhaTwo others leaders have been given the task of managing TMCs affairs in northern states — Rajeshpati Tripathi in UP and Ashok Tanwar in HaryanaAt a meeting held here prior to the announcement Banerjee asked everybody in the party to work together a TMC leader saidThe TMC supremo during his 25-minute long speech underlined that the party needs both the experience of old leaders and the energy of the new leaders to further its growthOur party supremo during the meeting clearly said that everybody has to work together as one team Although the party needs new faces old leaders are always invaluable assets No one should forget old is gold a senior TMC leaderDuring the meet Banerjee also maintained that social media platforms should be used to propagate the partys policies and programmes and not to further personal agenda he saidShe has also said that TMC is a party of poor people so everybody has to be humble and shun pomp and luxury the leader addedBanerjee had last week dissolved the erstwhile national office bearers committee and the portfolios that came with it amid a growing internal strife between the old guard and the young leaders She then formed a 20-member working committee packed with party veteransMeanwhile Krishna Chakraborty Ram Chakraborty and Bidhan Upadhyay have been selected as the next mayor of Bidhannagar Chandernagore and Asansol towns respectivelyGautam Debs name as Siliguri mayor was announced earlier in the week Sabyasachi Dutta the former mayor of Bidhannagar who made his back to TMC from BJP after assembly polls has been made the chairman of Bidhannangar municipal corporationPolls to these municipal corporations were held on February 12 The TMC bagged all four civic bodies with overwhelming majority PTI PNTRMS RMS
Kolkata Feb 18 PTI West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday reappointed her nephew Abhishek Banerjee as TMC national general secretary as she constituted the new office bearers team packing it mainly with old-timers loyal to herThe party brought back Yashwant Sinha as its national vice-presidentTwo other senior leaders Subrata Bakshi and Chandrima Bhattacharya have also been given the vice-presidents post in the organisationBanerjees trusted lieutenant and housing minister Firhad Hakim has been given the charge of coordination between her and the national working committee while state minister Aroop Biswas has been appointed as the national treasurerRajya Sabha chief whip Sukhendu Shekhar Ray and Lok Sabha MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar are the new party spokespersons of Parliaments upper and lower houses respectivelyKrishnanagar MP Mahua Moitra has been assigned the job of interacting with the mediaTMCs Rajya Sabha party leader Derek O Brien who had been serving as the partys chief national spokesperson did not feature in the listPolitical observers feel Abhisheks return as national general secretary the de-facto number two in the organisation has sent out a message indicating that he would remain the heir apparent amid the internal strife between the old guard and the next-generation leadershipThe TMC boss also seems to have mollified some of the old-timers by giving them plum posts in the committee and thus stifling the growing clamour for one party one post by some of the younger leaders in the partyThree defectors from the Congress Sushmita Dev and Subal Bhowmik and Mukul Sangma have been made TMCs in-charge of the northeastBanerjee has assigned the job of preparing the partys draft policy on economic and external affairs to her principal chief adviser Amit Mitra and Yashwant SinhaTwo others leaders have been given the task of managing TMCs affairs in northern states — Rajeshpati Tripathi in UP and Ashok Tanwar in HaryanaAt a meeting held here prior to the announcement Banerjee asked everybody in the party to work together a TMC leader saidThe TMC supremo during his 25-minute long speech underlined that the party needs both the experience of old leaders and the energy of the new leaders to further its growthOur party supremo during the meeting clearly said that everybody has to work together as one team Although the party needs new faces old leaders are always invaluable assets No one should forget old is gold a senior TMC leaderDuring the meet Banerjee also maintained that social media platforms should be used to propagate the partys policies and programmes and not to further personal agenda he saidShe has also said that TMC is a party of poor people so everybody has to be humble and shun pomp and luxury the leader addedBanerjee had last week dissolved the erstwhile national office bearers committee and the portfolios that came with it amid a growing internal strife between the old guard and the young leaders She then formed a 20-member working committee packed with party veteransMeanwhile Krishna Chakraborty Ram Chakraborty and Bidhan Upadhyay have been selected as the next mayor of Bidhannagar Chandernagore and Asansol towns respectivelyGautam Debs name as Siliguri mayor was announced earlier in the week Sabyasachi Dutta the former mayor of Bidhannagar who made his back to TMC from BJP after assembly polls has been made the chairman of Bidhannangar municipal corporationPolls to these municipal corporations were held on February 12 The TMC bagged all four civic bodies with overwhelming majority PTI PNTRMS RMS
