After days of speculation regarding tension between Trinamool Congress (TMC) and poll strategist Prashant Kishor’s Indian Political Action Committee (IPAC), the organisation on Friday unfollowed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Twitter. Reports of differences between Kishor’s IPAC and senior Trinamool leaders, including Mamata, have been doing the rounds since early February. The “cold war” that erupted between the Trinamool leadership and IPAC over the Kolkata municipal elections last November seems to have peaked. Although no official announcement has been made in this regard, party leaders claim that the party’s severance with IPAC is only a matter of time.
IPAC has a formal agreement with the Trinamool until 2026. According to sources, no news of any political or administrative meetings of the Chief Minister have been uploaded on the Facebook page of the TMC since the first week of February. IPAC has been in charge of this page since 2019. However, all her speeches were uploaded on her own Facebook page on time. Even the inaugural public meeting held in Goa on Thursday was not broadcast on the official page of the TMC.
Interestingly, IPAC continues to follow TMC’ national general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, and vice versa.
Meanwhile, political observers are waiting to see if Abhishek will remove himself from TMC’s national general secretary post owing to the situation surrounding IPAC. Sources close to Abhishek claim that Abhishek may announce his decision after the Assembly polls in Goa scheduled for 14 February. However, some party leaders claim that the situation is likely to change if Mamata Banerjee has a face-to-face discussion with Abhishek.
Abhishek’s brother Akash Banerjee has posted on Facebook “One post one person” in support of Abhishek’s policy. Another member of the family, Aditi Gain, also posted the same. Trinamool youth leader Debangshu Bhattacharya too did the same. It must be noted that Abhishek’s distance with TMC seniors increased with the implementation of the one post one person policy. Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, who holds multiple positions, has rejected Abhishek’s policy.
It is believed that Abhishek wants to put “counter pressure” and therefore wants to step down. However, a leader close to Abhishek on Friday said: “There is no question of counter-pressure politics. Abhishek thinks he can’t do what he wants to do. Is there any benefit in holding a position in this situation? It is better to work for the people of your Lok Sabha constituency as an MP.”