Growing rift between Mamata Banerjee & nephew Abhishek, Trinamool chief calls meeting

A growing rift between West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and her nephew – the party’s national general secretary – Abhishek Banerjee has prompted the party chief to call an urgent meeting of the party’s top leaders on Saturday.

It is believed that several issues will be discussed at the meeting, especially questions on leadership in the party. A working committee for looking at the party’s various activities is expected to be formed. In recent times, there has been tension between the CM and the party’s national general secretary on various issues. On Friday, social media was abuzz with the Trinamool pitching for “One person, one post”, which have been resented by many senior leaders in the party.

I-PAC, the political consultancy group of Prashant Kishor, which was working with the Trinamool from the run-up to the West Bengal Assembly elections of 2021, has been caught in the crossfire. Trinamool leader Chandrima Bhattacharya on Friday alleged that her social media accounts had been “misused” by I-PAC. “A Twitter account in my name was created by I-PAC before the election. Today it posted something about ‘one person one post’ without my knowledge. I strongly protest against it,” Bhattacharya said.

In what is believed to be a reaction to the Trinamool leader’s angry outburst, I-PAC took to Twitter to give its official reaction: “I-PAC doesn’t handle any digital properties of @AITCofficial or any of its leaders. Anyone making such claim is either uninformed or is blatantly lying. AITC should look into if and how their digital properties and/or that of their leaders are being ‘allegedly (mis)used’.”

Later in the day, Kolkata Mayor and senior party leader, Firhad Hakim said that there will be a meeting on Saturday in which a working committee of the party is likely to be formed.