Abhishek reappointed as TMC national General Secretary

Kolkata: TMC chairperson Mamata Banerjee on Friday formed a new officer bearers' committee, reappointing Abhishek Banerjee as the party's national general secretary and veteran leader Yashwant Sinha as its vice-president.

Senior TMC leaders Subrata Bakshi and Chandrima Bhattacharya, too, have also been given the post of the party's national vice-presidents.

Among others, TMC minister Aroop Biswas has been made the treasurer, and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim in-charge of coordination.

This was decided at the first meeting of the national working committee held at the residence of the party's chairperson on Friday evening who also chaired it.

A section of the print and electronic media had tried to create confusion by circulating stories on the supposed rift between Mamata and Abhishek. Putting an end to such speculations, Abhishek has been made the national general secretary of the party. The party's election was held recently where Mamata Banerjee was unanimously elected as the chairperson. Accordingly, all posts of the old committee got dissolved. The designations of the new committee members were announced on Friday.

A 19-member national working committee was set up. On Friday, designations of the committee members were announced. Trinamool will send the names along with the designations to the Election Commission of India soon.

Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, the party chief whip in Rajya Sabha, has been made the national spokesperson. It was decided that the party's Lok Sabha MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Mohua Moitra will make statements on national issues from the Delhi office when Parliament will be in session.

Yashwant Sinha and Amit Mitra will frame the economic policy of the party. Sushmita Dev, the party's Rajya Sabha member, will look after the north-eastern states along with Mukul Sangma. Luzinho Faleiro will look after Goa while Ashok Tanwar and Rajeshpati Tripathi will look after Haryana and Uttar Pradesh respectively.

Before the meeting began, Mamata Banerjee held a meeting separately with Abhishek, Malay Ghatak and Firhad Hakim respectively.

It was learnt that during the hour-long meeting, Banerjee told the leaders as the party had expanded over the years, every member should work to consolidate the party. It was also learnt that she had told them that under no circumstance should social media be used to project themselves instead of the work done by the party and its policies.