TMC: Mamata Banerjee set to meet all office-bearers

Meet would follow organisational overhaul currently underway in districts, being overseen by Abhishek Banerjee's office

Mamata Banerjee: File Picture

Meghdeep Bhattacharyya   |   Calcutta   |   22.08.22 : Trinamul Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee is likely to attend a meeting, alongside the national general-secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, and others in the top-tier leadership, with office-bearers of the party right down to the grassroots sometime in the first half of September before the autumnal festive season begins.

Sources in the Trinamul leadership said the meeting, with several thousand attendees, was likely to take place at the Netaji Indoor Stadium in Calcutta and a date would soon be fixed according to the convenience of Mamata and her nephew Abhishek.

The meeting would follow the organisational overhaul currently underway in districts, being overseen by Abhishek’s office. In the wake of the arrest by central probe agencies of Trinamul heavyweights Partha Chatterjee and Anubrata Mondal, the meeting is likely to be quite significant.

“She (Mamata) would lay out the road map for the party’s rank and file, which will be diligently followed from after the Puja season. It will essentially be our run-up to the panchayat elections next year,” said a Trinamul leader.

“Besides, in keeping with the tone she had already set in that public address of August 14, there would be instructions for a no-holds-barred political counter-attack (against the Opposition’s caustic criticism over alleged graft in the Trinamul regime), once the festive spell is over,” he added. “Other parts of the meeting might be behind closed doors, but her speech, surely, will be aired live on social and mainstream media.”

Mamata and her party had been largely on the defensive — having meted out the hot potato treatment to Chatterjee after his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate — till Mondal was picked up by the CBI. Unlike in the case of Chatterjee, the chief minister threw her weight firmly behind her party’s Birbhum strongman, threatening the BJP-led Centre with “one lakh more” Mondals on the streets for every arrested Trinamul leader.

Trinamul insiders said instructions for a counter-attack, in the face of the state Opposition’s abrasive onslaught against Mamata and the party, had already been issued by the top-tier leadership. They said the general perception of Trinamul taking the attacks lying down in the wake of Chatterjee and Mondal’s arrest had to be altered fast.

“She and Abhishek are likely to further reinforce that, in the meeting,” said a source. “Both of them know this will be watched nationally, given some of the scandalous accusations being levelled against us now. Expect fireworks.”

“A lot of reading between the lines has taken place because this began not long after Parthada’s arrest. But this was on the cards for quite some time… long overdue, in fact,” said a Trinamul MP.

“So once this process is over, by the end of this month, we will have that meeting. It was supposed to take place between September 5 and 10, but we need both (Mamata and Abhishek) to be fully available for the event. So, it will probably take place after September 10, but before Vishwakarma Puja (September 17),” he added.