Crisis-hit TMC reworks party organisation, cuts role of consultants

NEw new delhi: veneer a undulation of defection and intragroup dissent after its electoral licking, the Trinamool Congress is reworking its organizational strategy with party leaders indicating that key decisions will increasingly be handled directly by the party leadership rather than external consultants.According to senior party leaders, the TMC has also decided to move cautiously on organisational appointments and disciplinary action as it seeks to stabilise its ranks amid continuing exits of senior leaders.A senior TMC leader said the party has decided “not to outsource its organizational works”. He said party chief Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee “would meet people daily” at Kalighat, or Banerjee’s residential office, and at the party office.Both decisions assume significance as the party was heavily dependent on I-PAC since the run-up to the 2021 assembly polls in West Bengal. While I-PAC initially managed TMC’s poll preparations, party insiders said in the last few years, the agency was involved in key organization-related decisions.TMC’s association with I-PAC, widely seen as a part of Abhishek’s push for organisational reforms, suffered a blow with ED raids at the agency’s offices in Kolkata and criticism from some senior leaders. TMC’s Lok Sabha chief whip Kalyan Banerjee said, “I-PAC hijacked our organisation and created rifts within the party.” Now-expelled spokesperson Riju Dutta alleged that I-PAC officials had asked for bribes from candidates.The renewed emphasis on Kalighat and the party headquarters is also significant because it shifts organisational activity away from Camac Street, which has emerged in recent years as an important centre of political and organisational decision-making associated with Abhishek Banerjee.“Some people at Camac Street (office) didn’t like me. But Mamata Banerjee had given me a ticket and I won the elections,” party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said last week.His remarks have added to speculation about differences within sections of the party over the role and influence of the Camac Street office.The organisational recalibration comes as the party seeks to rebuild after a series of setbacks. Since the election results were declared on May 4, the TMC has lost 62 of its 80 MLAs to a splinter group that has also taken control of the Leader of the Opposition’s post in the West Bengal assembly. Earlier this month, 20 of the party’s 28 Lok Sabha MPs met the Speaker seeking a merger with NCPI. The mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation has also resigned along with several corporators ahead of municipal elections scheduled later this year.