Didi forms 20-member panel of TMC to stem discord

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee on Saturday dissolved the party’s national office-bearers’ committee, which included her nephew Abhishek Banerjee—the national general secretary, and formed a 20-member working committee to oversee the affairs amid a growing rift.

Asserting her firm control over the party, Banerjee packed the working committee with party veterans who were facing criticism publicly from the TMC’s nextgeneration leaders, backed by Abhishek Banerjee, over holding multiple posts— within the party and the administration.

Banerjee will later name the new office-bearers of the party, senior TMC leader Partha Chatterjee told reporters after a meeting at the West Bengal CM’s Kalighat residence here. Amid Abhishek Banerjee’s springing influence in the party, following the massive success in last year’s state elections, a few senior leaders at the meeting reiterated that Banerjee was their “supreme leader”, the source said. — PTI