TMC’s new national face? Abhishek Banerjee gets a leg-up with Delhi campaign

Abhishek has been a parliamentarian since 2014 but his actual rise within the TMC began after the party’s underwhelming performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when its tally of parliamentary seats reduced from 34 to 22 and the BJP recorded its best-ever show in the parliamentary elections in Bengal. With the Assembly elections a couple of years away, the party hired poll strategist Prashant Kishor. According to TMC insiders, Abhishek was the principal mover and Kishor spent the next couple of years alongside the MP to plot the party’s victory.

The win in the 2021 Assembly elections marked a shift in Abhishek’s rise as his grip on the state Cabinet solidified and Mamata put him in charge of the party’s national expansion plans, among the first indications of her nephew’s increasing hold on the party. The TMC attempted to establish itself in states such as Goa, Meghalaya, and Tripura ahead of the Assembly elections there — and even tried to put down roots in Assam — but the exercise ended in failure.

Subsequently, the TMC leader kept himself confined to state politics and worked to strengthen his hold over the organisation and government. According to TMC insiders, several state Cabinet ministers are Abhishek loyalists. As the party faced an optics challenge last year following the arrest of then state industries minister Partha Chatterjee in a corruption case, Abhishek is said to be the one who convinced his aunt to cut Chatterjee loose and sack him from the government as well as the party.

Abhishek’s rise has caused friction within the party, with the TMC old guard, including the likes of Firhad Hakim and Kalyan Bandopadhyay, unhappy about it. But that Mamata’s nephew is her heir apparent is seen as inevitable in TMC circles. This year, his statewide yatra to rejuvenate the party’s grassroots support and role in candidate selection were attributed as reasons for the panchayat poll success in June.

Abhishek takes over

With the TMC raising the pitch over the past few months over frozen Central funds — something the party alleges the BJP-led government is doing in retaliation for losing several consecutive elections in the state — it was Abhishek who first issued the call for the Delhi campaign. At the party’s July 21 Martyrs’ Day rally, he took aim at the Centre, saying, “Our next movement will be in Delhi, outside Krishi Bhavan. We will all fight shoulder to shoulder.”

Mamata Banerjee was expected to take the lead at the protest. But after she backed out following a leg injury suffered during a recent trip abroad, Abhishek took over.

A senior TMC functionary said, “Before the panchayat elections, Abhishek was assisting Mamata Banerjee. But from then on, he has emerged as a leader on a par with her. He has also faced persistent probes by the ED, CBI, etc. All this has given him extra mileage. He is now so important that the INDIA bloc issued a collective statement against the ED for questioning and harassing him.”

“Abhishek Banerjee is already a national leader,” said TMC leader Jayprakash Majumder. “The police attack, instigated by the BJP regime at the Centre, has proved once again how frightened the Narendra Modi government is by the emergence of the INDIA alliance and the TMC’s influence on the psyche of not just people in Bengal, but pan-India. It is a manifestation of that cowardly attitude.”

But the Opposition in Bengal is not convinced. BJP leader Samik Bhattacharya, when asked about Abhishek gaining prominence on the national stage, said, “Who emerges as a leader or not will be decided by the people. We can only say that such movements are laughable.”

CPI(M) leader Samik Lahiri, Diamond Harbour’s former MP, said, “He (Abhishek) is basically in Delhi to divert attention from his corrupt practices. For a corrupt person, there is nothing called national, regional or rural.”