Trinamool Congress plans more party units and young blood

KOLKATA: In an attempt to decentralise the party structure and avert feud over leadership, which has triggered embarrassment on several occasions, the Trinamool Congress is planning to create more party units in 23 districts, including Kolkata, and create more posts.

The move came after Mamata Banerjee held a three-hour meeting with election strategist Prashant Kishor, whom the TMC hired and is believed to be the architect of many government schemes enabling the party’s victory in the recent Assembly elections. TMC sources said the party is likely to follow the BJP model by splitting major districts into several organisational zones.

“She (Mamata) wants to split the party’s present district units into several parts and set up new committees. Each committee will be headed by a president. This is aimed to ensure smooth organisational operation and avert infighting over leadership control which affected the party’s image at many places. These changes are being made in view of the civic body elections, which is overdue, panchayat polls in 2023 and Lok Sabha elections in 2024,’’ said a TMC leader.

Party sources said the BJP has a similar organisational setup in bigger districts. The BJP has four units in North 24 Parganas and two units in each of Murshidabad and Nadia districts. The saffron camp refers to these units as organisational districts.

“Following Kishor’s advice, Mamata Banerjee wants to enforce the one-man-one-post policy and elevate young leaders. Some announcements are expected to be made next week. The party will also re-launch its mouthpiece Jago Bangla,’’ said another TMC leader.

After TMC’s debacle in the Lok Sabha elections, in which BJP made deep inroads in the TMC turf by bagging 18 out of 42 seas, the ruling party replaced several senior leaders with young faces which led to infighting and defection to the BJP in some districts.

“The large-scale defection to the BJP had no impact on the Assembly poll results. Instead, the voters identified the defectors as traitors and power-hungry. The rejig in the party is expected to pave the way for the young leaders in districts who performed well in the recent polls with their clean image,’’ said the leader.