Mamata Banerjee's TMC sets up new committee after rift caused by nephew's faction

The meeting was held at the West Bengal Chief Minister's south Kolkata residence in Kalighat with the senior leadership of the party, including her nephew, in attendance.

The committee comprised names like Amit Mitra, Partha Chatterjee, Sudip Bandopadhyay, Abhishek Banerjee, Subrata Bakshi, Anubrata Mondal, Aroop Biswas, Firhad Hakim and Yashwant Sinha.

According to NDTV, senior Trinamool leader Partha Chatterjee told reporters after the meeting that Mamata Banerjee will name the new office bearers of the party.

The meeting was convened to discuss the internal squabble within the TMC over Abhishek Banerjee's push for 'One Man, One Post' policy in the party, opposed by some of the party veterans and many of whom hold multiple posts in the ruling government.

However, many are viewing this as a crack in the relationship between Mamata Banerjee and her nephew, whose ambitions have grown over the years after taking over an active role in the party and emerging as virtually the second-in-command in TMC.

He is also the bridge between the TMC and poll strategist Prashant Kishor-led I-PAC's political consultants, who use techniques like data analysis, social media strategies among others. Earlier, too, many TMC leaders had opposed what they called I-PAC's interference using their social media accounts without their knowledge.

Yesterday, the resentment came to full public glare when Trinamool leader Chandrima Bhattacharya and I-PAC got into a verbal spat with Bhattacharya accusing I-PAC of Prashant Kishor's team of misusing her social media accounts.

The allegation was immediately challenged by I-PAC. The I-PAC countered, "I-PAC doesn't handle any digital properties of @AITCofficial or any of its leaders. Anyone making such claim is either uninformed or is blatantly lying. AITC should look into if and how their digital properties and/or that of their leaders are being 'allegedly (mis)used.' "

According to the NDTV report, Mamata Banerjee was headed towards Uttar Pradesh to help Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party in poll campaign instead of Goa, where Abhishek Banerjee is spearheading TMC's election campaign and the party has fielded 24 candidates.

"Asked if she was going to campaign in Goa, she said 'Somebody is doing, so I am not. I am going to other places... in greater interest', a curious comment and an even more curious reference to Abhishek Banerjee as 'somebody,' " the report noted.

Last week, when two competing lists of candidates were released for the upcoming civic polls, Mamata Banerjee was compelled to take a side and showed her support for the faction perceived as the old guard.

However, I-PAC has denied any disagreements with TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, the report said, citing sources.