I am still here, I am the final word, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee tells TMC
Times of India | 3 December 2024
KOLKATA: Mamata Banerjee sent out an unequivocal message on Monday about the command structure within Trinamool Congress, telling everyone that she remained the party's boss and any speculation about multiple power centres in the party was unwarranted and unnecessary.
"I am still here. I am the final word (in the party). I and Bakshi Da (state party president Subrata Bakshi) will look after the party," she told Trinamool legislators at the assembly's Naushad Ali chamber.
"Everyone in the party is equal. Someone may be a minister today and a legislator tomorrow," she added, asking everyone "not to worry about these matters but focus more on connecting with people and working for them".
"Speak less and listen more (to people)" in the run-up to the 2026 assembly election, Banerjee told her MLAs, indicating that she might make organisational changes in the party's youth and student wings.
Banerjee's statements on Monday came exactly a week after she met the party leadership at her Kalighat residence, where several panels were set up to establish discipline within Trinamool.
The developments follow the Trinamool's sweep of the assembly bypolls last month that saw it winning all the six seats with vote shares ranging between 54% and 76%.
The bypolls were the first after the August rape-and-murder of a young doctor on the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital campus, which was followed by a series of anti-government demonstrations that led to speculations about a possible political comeback by the Left parties. In the bypolls, however, all Left Front candidates came a distant third and forfeited their deposits.
Banerjee's moves to scotch indiscipline within the party and send out a clear message on who is its boss come in the backdrop of these developments. The Bengal CM also picked on individual MLAs for shooting off their mouth.
Show-cause for MLAs absent for 3 days
Ashok nagar MLA Narayan Goswami was one of those who was singled out. “You need to stop going here and there. Focus on your own area,” she told him.
Visit households in your areas, engage with people, listen to their grievances and resolve them, CM Mamata Banerjee told TMC MLAs. “Tell me if there is pending administrative task, I will take care of it,” the CM was quoted as saying.
Monday’s meeting also saw the leadership stressing that not too much “importance” needed to be given to poll consultancy firm I-PAC, which worked with TMC in the 2021 assembly poll and again in the 2024 LS election.
“I do not know about these PAC-facs. A lot of incorrect information is coming. I will decide based on the information I get,” MLAs quoted Banerjee as saying.
Banerjee also focused on MLAs’ absenteeism, directing show-cause notices be sent if they failed to attend assembly sessions on time for three consecutive days.