With eye on 2026 Assembly elections, Abhishek Banerjee proposes reshuffle in TMC’s district presidents

There was another significant recommendation from Abhishek’s side, according to TMC sources. Two years ago, Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal was arrested in a cattle smuggling case, following which the Chief Minister formed a “co-ordination committee” of district leaders, MPs, and MLAs — they conducted the Lok Sabha elections this year.

Now, Abhishek Banerjee has reportedly proposed that this core committee should “control” the Birbhum district organisation. Meanwhile, Mondal is out on bail from Tihar Jail.

A senior leader of TMC said, “In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the party did much better than the 2019 Lok Sabha election. Abhishek Banerjee thinks the party is doing well with the co-ordination committee and that should be continued.”

In 2019, the TMC bagged 22 seats compared to 2024’s 28 seats, while the BJP slid from 18 seats to 12 this year. The Congress had one seat in 2019 and now has none.

TMC sources said that Abhishek Banerjee wants the party to start preparing for the 2026 Assembly elections this year. “This time, the party will start the candidate selection process well before the announcement of the Assembly elections. Many candidates will be changed after evaluation of their performance in the last five years,” a senior TMC leader said.

The leader further added that per Abhishek’s suggestions, “This time, importance will not be given to loyalty to the party but rather to those who performed well… those who failed to perform will be changed. The party will also give more preference to the youth and honest names… However, everything will ultimately depend on Mamata Banerjee.”

TMC leader Kunal Ghosh said, “The process of correcting the party’s shortcomings has begun under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee so that we can get more than 250 seats (out of 294) in the 2026 Assembly elections — the party’s prime target.”