Mamata calls party leadership meet today; focus likely on panchayat polls

Also, this will be the first meeting of the party leadership after the Sagardighi bypoll and Assembly elections in Tripura and Meghalaya.

The results of the polls will also be reviewed, party functionaries said.

The party’s unexpected loss in the Sagardighi by-election will also be looked into at the meeting, they added.

Soon after the bypoll results were declared, the Chief Minister had constituted a five-member committee to ascertain the reasons behind the defeat. In the bypoll, Trinamool candidate Debashis Banerjee was defeated by Left-backed Congress candidate Byron Biswas by nearly 23,000 votes.

The five-member committee is learnt to have prepared its report mentioning 25 reasons behind the Trinamool’s defeat in the bypoll. The report is likely to be submitted to Mamata Banerjee  within a week, another functionary said.

Party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and other top leaders will be present in Friday’s meeting, it is learnt. State Cabinet Ministers Firhad Hakim and Arup Biswas, party’s Lok Sabha MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Rajya Sabha member Subrata Bakshi among other leaders have been asked to be present in the meeting.