Focusing on 2024 LS polls, Mamata to chart Trinamul course

In most of these states, since the BJP’s fight is directly with the Congress, Didi's party has been facing criticism for allegedly working in favour of the saffron camp

Mamata Banerjee.: File photo

Meghdeep Bhattacharyya   |   TT  |  Calcutta   |  30.11.21: The Trinamul Congress’s top-tier leadership on Monday entrusted Mamata Banerjee with the responsibility of making necessary changes to the constitution of the party and lay down the roadmap for growth beyond Bengal’s borders ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

The 21-member working committee of the party met at Mamata’s Kalighat residence in the evening.

“The meeting was historic. Several things emerged very clearly from it. First and foremost, the All India Trinamul Congress will now take every step necessary to become a national force so that it is able to directly take on the BJP,” Pavan Varma, former JDU national general-secretary who had joined Trinamul recently, said after the meeting.

“For that, whatever necessary… if constitutional changes within the party are necessary, for instance. If the organisational structure of the party has to be changed. The changes that are to be made in view of strategy… for everything, the party unanimously entrusted Mamata Banerjeeji with the right to take all the steps,” said Varma, a former Indian Foreign Service officer, adding the situation across the nation now made it clear there needed to be an all-out national campaign against the BJP.

Explaining why he described the meeting as “historic”, Varma said from this day forth, Trinamul’s nationwide identity would emerge conspicuously.

“For that national campaign to have a flag-bearer, it is also clear that only Trinamul Congress can step up to the plate. In Mamata Banerjee’s leadership, that fight will be fought, and for that whatever step needs to be taken will be taken by our party,” added the former Rajya Sabha member from Bihar.

Since appointment as Trinamul’s national general-secretary in June, Mamata’s political heir-apparent Abhishek Banerjee, along with poll strategist Prashant Kishor and his team, has been trying to carve out a national niche for the party, with attempts to find a toehold in states such as Tripura, Goa, Assam and Meghalaya, besides Haryana and Bihar.

In most of these states, since the BJP’s fight is directly with the Congress, Trinamul has been facing criticism for allegedly working in favour of the saffron camp, on the basis of a secret entente between Mamata and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Trinamul’s recent attacks against the Congress have further added fuel to that fire.

On Monday, when asked if Trinamul’s approach towards the Congress featured in the closed-door discussions that featured nine speakers including the Bengal chief minister, no clear answer was given either by Varma or Derek O’Brien.

“We are a growing party…. The basic structure, our DNA will not change…. But the constitution will change, for taking her (Mamata’s) message, her struggle to the rest of the nation,” said O’Brien, Trinamul’s leader in the Rajya Sabha, adding that the next time the working committee meets, it would take place in Delhi.

The 21-member working committee, said O’Brien, would be expanded for inclusion of members from outside Bengal.

“The way Bengal defeated the BJP, in Mamatadi’s leadership in 2021, it is clear now that Bengal will, similarly, show the way for the entire nation to do that in 2024…. Mamatadi is the strongest, the most credible and the most experienced to defeat the BJP,” he added.