Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamul Congress MP and nephew of party chairperson Mamata Banerjee, has been retained as national general secretary of the party, after the newly formed central working committee of the Trinamul Congress met at Banerjee’s Kalighat office today to decide on appointments to various party posts after they were dissolved nearly a week ago.
Apart from Banerjee and the 19 members of National Working Committee, special invitees from Goa, Haryana, Meghalaya, Tripura and UP were present at the meeting. Abhishek Banerjee remained as national general secretary of the party, essentially the No. 2 in the party organisation, but Miss Banerjee also named three vice-presidents at the national level in what is seen as a balancing act.
The vice presidents are Yashwant Sinha, Subrata Bakshi and Chandrima Bhattacharya at the national level. Mr Sukhendu Shekhar Roy was named as national spokesperson instead of Mr Derek O’Brien. A new post of co-ordinator has been created for Kolkata mayor Firad Hakim who will co-ordinate between the party chairperson and other members. The sports minister, Aroop Biswas, has been made party’s treasurer.
Mr Sinha and Mr Amit Mitra have been given the responsibility of handling the foreign and economic policy of the party. Apart from Mr Sukhendu Shekhar Roy, the other national spokespersons are Mahua Moitra and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar. A North-Eastern State Committee of the party has also been constituted, with Rajya Sabha MP Susmita Dev, Meghalaya Leader of the Opposition Mukul Sangma, and Tripura leader Subal Bhowmik to handle matters relating to the North-East states.
Ashok Tanwar has been made the party co-ordinator for Haryana and Rajeshpati Tripathi co-ordinator for Uttar Pradesh. Tripathi and Trinamul Rajya Sabha MP from Goa, Luziniho Falerio and Meghalaya Trinamul Congress state president Charles Pyngrope were present at today’s meeting. Firad Hakim, meanwhile, announced the party’s picks as mayors of Bidhannagar, Asansol, Siliguri and Chandannagore municipal corporations, all four of which the Trinamul Congress won in the recently held civic body elections.
For Asansol Municipal Corporation, Bidhan Upadhyay has been named the Mayor with Wasimul Haque and Abhijeet Ghatak as deputy mayors. For Chandannagore Municipal Corporation, the party has named Ram Chakraborty as mayor, while for Siliguri Municipal Corporation the new mayor will be Gautam Deb. For Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, the Mayor will be Krishna Chakraborty, with Anita Mondal as deputy Mayor and Sabyasachi Dutta as chairman