Mondal, considered a close aide of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, has been serving as the president of the TMC’s Birbhum district since 2009 and his inclusion in the core committee comes after his recent bail from Tihar Jail, where he was being held in connection with a cattle smuggling case. After his arrest in August 2022, no new president was appointed.

Additionally, it was also decided in the meeting that every leader will have separate jurisdiction and nobody will enter into another leader’s jurisdiction without permission.

Last week, senior TMC leader and party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, had proposed that the Birbhum district organisation should be controlled by the core committee, even after its district president Anubrata Mondal got bail and was released from Tihar jail.

Two years ago, after Mondal’s arrest, the Chief Minister had formed a “coordination committee” of district leaders, MPs, and MLAs — who also conducted the Lok Sabha elections this year. Abhishek Banerjee, last week, had reportedly proposed that this core committee should “control” the party’s Birbhum unit.

Meanwhile, the core committee now has seven members —Bikash Roychowdhury, Kajal Sheikh, Sudipta Ghosh, Abhijit Sinha, Ashish Banerjee and Chandranath Sinha and Mondal (also known as Kesto da). Members have also denied any infighting within the core committee.

Convenor of core committee Bikash Roychowdhury said, “There is no infighting in Birbhum. We are all united and work unitedly in the coming days.”
Kajal Sheikh, considered a key rival of Mondal, said, “We will work together under Kesto da’s guardianship.”

Some party leaders in the district feel that Mondal’s freedom to move around Birbhum is now being curtailed. “If Kesto da wants to go to someone’s area, then he should inform in advance! It’s incredible!,” a district leader said.