After the change of political power in West Bengal, something once hard even to imagine has finally come to pass. Mamata Banerjee has been removed from the top post of the very party she built nearly three decades ago. The Howrah MLA Arup Roy has been elected the new chairman of the All India Trinamool Congress.
The decision was taken at a special meeting held at a hotel in New Town, Kolkata, on Monday (June 22). About 60 of the party’s MLAs and at least 70 councillors of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation attended, with the meeting led by the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Ritabrata Banerjee.
It is the first such major change in the party’s top leadership since the Trinamool Congress was founded. The replacement of Mamata Banerjee, long known as the face of the party and its chief decision-maker, with Arup Roy as chairman has generated wide discussion in political circles.
At the start of the meeting, Ritabrata Banerjee raised the issue of the party’s organisational crisis. He said that, under the party’s constitution, the formation of an all-India executive committee every three years was mandatory, and that the last such committee had been formed in 2022. As the stipulated time had since passed without a new committee being formed, the meeting had been called on an urgent basis, he explained. A rapid process of organisational restructuring then began: the names of the executive committee members were announced first, after which Arup Roy was approved as chairman by a voice vote.
According to political observers, the decision signals not just a change of leadership but the emergence of a new centre of power within the Trinamool Congress. The instability that had built up inside the party after it lost power in the state is seen as having found open expression in this meeting. After Arup Roy was elected chairman, a new state leadership was also announced. Firhad Hakim, Arup Biswas, Rathin Ghosh and Sabina Yasmin were made vice-presidents; Ritabrata Banerjee, Javed Khan and Sandipan Saha were made general secretaries; and Akharuzzaman Ansari was given charge as treasurer. The appointment of an auditor to review past financial activities was also announced.
According to a section of political circles, the rebel Trinamool camp has, through this step, sent a clear message that it wants to build a new organisational structure out of the shadow of the old leadership. For the loyalists of Mamata Banerjee, the development is undoubtedly a major blow. The Mamata Banerjee in whose name the Trinamool Congress’s identity was once forged has had to lose the leadership within her own party after the state’s change of political power.
It is being regarded as an undoubtedly historic and significant event in West Bengal politics. It now remains to be seen whether the Trinamool Congress can reorganise under this new leadership and how much influence it can wield in the state’s opposition politics in the days ahead.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report