Within 48 hours of blowing the poll bugle Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday effected a major reshuffle in the ruling Trinamool Congress by infusing a mix of experience, youth, clean image and loyalty at the organisational level.
North Bengal and Jangalmahal in south-western part of the State where the TMC fared miserably— conceding a large bulk of seats to an emerging BJP in 2019 General elections — have found special focus in the new scheme of things.
Much in the line of the BJP’s “Marg Darshan Mandli” a good number of TMC old guards who were functioning as district presidents’ have been “elevated” as 'chairpersons' of the respective district units — a new designation with unspecific political potency.
The rejig exercise was conducted via a virtual meeting of senior leaders from the State and district, sources said.
Among the young leaders are former India cricketer and Bengal captain, Laxmi Ratan Shukla the present Sports Minister of Bengal. He has been appointed the president of Howrah city president removing powerful leader and Minister Arup Roy.
MP and senior leader Sudip Bandopadhyay who have been elevated as the chairperson of the North Kolkata district committee has also been asked to continue as the party president of the district until a new appointee takes over.
While in South Kolkata Debashis Kumar continues to remain the party president Nadia finds a new district chief in vocal MP Mohua Moitra.
The BJP has come up in a big way in Nadia which like North Bengal and Jangalmahal has seen the entire former Left leadership switching over to the saffron ranks.
In North Bengal, prominent civil society member and former MP Arpita Ghosh has been removed as the president of South Dinajpur district which went into the hands of BJP in the parliamentary elections.
Further north Coochbehar has seen a new face in Partho Pratim Mitra replacing seasoned leader and Minister Rabindra Nath Ghosh as the district president. Similarly Shyamal Santra, Swapan Debnath and Jiten Tewari have been made the district presidents of Bankura, East and West Burdwan districts while Ajit Maity has been given the charge in West Midnapore.
The rejig has also seen the creation of a 7-member core committee comprising powerful leaders Firhad Hakim, Subhendu Adhikary and Gautam Deb ministers, Kalyan Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee MPs and Subroto Bakshi a former MP and close aide of the Chief Minister. This committee will oversee the performance of the district level leaderships. The posts of district level observers have been done away with.