During the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, the Trinamool Congress leadership is battling electoral challenges from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Left-Congress combine. It is equally grappling with a challenge from within: the divide between the old guard and the new leadership.
The demand for making way for new faces in the party has been growing stronger with every passing day. Yet, the Trinamool leadership has been conservative in the allocation of tickets. In Dum Dum, for instance, it has fielded the senior-most member of the party, Saugata Roy, 76.
In Kolkata Uttar, the Trinamool has fielded Sudip Banerjee, 75. While some party leaders believe that Sudip Banerjee, a nine-time MP, is too old to contest, Trinamool leader Kunal Ghosh has accused him of not being accessible to the people of his constituency, not allowing other leaders in the party to be appointed to key organisational posts, being soft on his political opponents, and maintaining good relations with the BJP leadership.
The BJP candidate in Kolkata Uttar is Tapas Roy, a five-time Trinamool MLA who was keen to contest the elections from the constituency and quit to join the BJP when he realised that the Trinamool will place its bet on Sudip Banerjee, an old war horse.
The differences between the old guard and the new leadership came out in the open in this constituency when, recently, Mr. Kunal Ghosh shared the dais with Mr. Tapas Roy and said in public that there are two BJP candidates in the fray in Kolkata Uttar: one contesting on the BJP symbol and another on the Trinamool symbol.
These remarks caused embarrassment to the Trinamool. Party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’ Brien issued a letter stating that Mr. Kunal Ghosh will be removed from the post of spokesperson. However, a few days later, soon after Mr. Kunal Ghosh met Mr. Derek O’ Brien, he continued commenting on key political developments in the capacity of spokesperson. During the entire controversy, Mr. Kunal Ghosh received the support of several Trinamool leaders who are believed to be close to MP Abhishek Banerjee, who is the nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
The Trinamool has also nominated young candidates such as Debagnshu Bhattacharya, 28, from Tamluk; Sayoni Ghosh, 31, from Jadavpur; and Shahnawaz Ali Raihan, 42, from Malda Dakshin. While these nominations seem to have been made by Abhishek Banerjee, veteran leaders such as Sudip Banerjee and Saugata Roy have been handpicked by Mamata Banerjee.
With the rise of Abhishek Banerjee in the party, the ‘old versus new’ debate has grown stronger. While the leaders of both camps have engaged in a verbal war of words, this is the first time that the divide is affecting electoral politics.
Months before the election, Abhishek Banerjee had said that there should be a retirement age in politics. The Chief Minister did not agree with this view. While referring to Saugata Roy, she said that the heart never grows old and that one should fight like a Royal Bengal Tiger as long as one is alive. Despite the political rise of her nephew, Mamata Banerjee remains the driving force in the party, including in making decisions on the disbursement of tickets for elections to the Lok Sabha and State Assembly.
There have been several instances, including in the ongoing polls, where the party has fielded actors, social activists, and writers with little or no political experience. Therefore, the debate over whether old leaders with more experience should be chosen or young entrants with more energy and public connect is nothing but a power tussle within the Trinamool. The challenge for both Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee is to keep such differences under wraps and not let it spill into the public domain. It is the responsibility of the top two leaders in the party to discipline their loyalists and prevent the situation from getting out of control, as it did at the Kolkata Uttar Lok Sabha seat.
Given the BJP’s determination to win a majority of the seats in the State and the Left-Congress combine’s effort to increase its voter base, the Trinamool leadership will have to keep its flock together, especially as key seats in south Bengal are going to polls over the next few days. If it does not speak in one voice, it could cost the party dearly.
