Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has reinstated her 34-year-old nephew as her ruling party's second-in-command, thus expressing full confidence in her heir apparent.
Abhishek Banerjee, a Member of Parliament, was made the general secretary of the Trinamool Congress in June last year, nearly a month after the party swept back to power in assembly elections in the state.
However, last week, Mamata dissolved all posts in her party, except that of hers -- the chairperson -- to put an end to the growing rift between the old guard of the Trinamool and its Young Turks over Abhishek's push for a 'one man, one post' policy in the party.
The proposed policy was vehemently opposed by some senior members of the Trinamool holding multiple portfolios in the political outfit and its government. Instead she had formed a 20-member national working committee to run the party.
"The decision to reinstate Abhishek as the party's general secretary was taken at a meeting of the committee, chaired by Mamata, on Friday evening," a Trinamool Congress leader told UNB.
On May 2 last year, Mamata scripted history by single-handedly pulling off a landslide victory in the state elections for the third time in a row, bucking anti-incumbency and staving off a massive challenge from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling BJP.
Bengal witnessed the most high-profile polls last year. While Mamata had harped on being Bengal’s daughter, the BJP went overboard by asking people to vote for "change and development" after 50 years of Communist and Trinamool Congress rule.
-20240416150710.jpeg)
