The decision was taken in a meeting held at the CM’s Kolkata residence, it is learnt. Party second-in-command and MP Abhishek Banerjee was not present in the meeting. The party, CM Banerjee said, will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from the district the way it did under now jailed party leader Anubrata Mondal in the previous polls.

She, however, retained Assembly Deputy Speaker Asish Banerjee, minister Chandranath Sinha, MLAs Bikash Roy Chowdhury and Abhijit Singha Roy, and party leader Sudipta Ghosh as core committee members. The CM has since January 2 started meetings with district leaders in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. Earlier, she had convened meetings with leaders from Purba Medinipur and Murshidabad districts.

As to why Abhishek Banerjee was not present in the meeting, Satabdi Roy said, “He was busy with other assignments.” However, a section of TMC leaders said the MP skipped the meeting since Mamata had earlier announced that she herself will oversee the party’s organisation in Birbhum.

A close associate of Mamata, Anubrata is one of the accused in the multi-crore cattle smuggling scam, which allegedly involved smuggling cattle to Bangladesh through Birbhum. His involvement in the smuggling racket is being investigated by both the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The TMC leader, who is currently lodged in the Tihar jail in the national capital, was arrested by the CBI in August 2022 and by the ED in November that year. In January, the Calcutta High Court refused to grant him bail in the case lodged by the CBI.
A senior party leader from Birbhum said, “The CM said the district organisation will be according to Anubrata’s wishes. She also said that she is hopeful of his release from jail soon and that he will take over as the party’s district president then.”