Why Prashant Kishor's I-PAC wants to end contract with TMC

Serious differences have cropped up between the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and political strategist Prashant Kishor’s I-PAC, as a ‘generational tussle’ within the party has come out in the open.

The Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) reportedly has expressed its desire to discontinue a five-year contact it extended with the TMC after helping the party win a spectacular victory in the 2021 Assembly elections against all odds. Apart from Bengal, the I-PAC team was helping the party to expand its base in Goa, Tripura, Meghalaya and other States.

TMC leaders, however, in public, are neither admitting nor denying the latest development. Party supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee skirted the issue when asked for a comment. “Don’t ask me such a question…This is not a party matter. Ask only questions related to my party,” she told reporters at the Kolkata airport before leaving for Lucknow on Monday evening to campaign for the Samajwadi Party in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh elections.

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Another senior party leader and cabinet minister Partha Chatterjee, too, avoided clearing the air on the development, saying only those in the party who are in touch with the I-PAC can throw a light on the issue. “I am a soldier of Mamata Banerjee. I only follow her instructions. So, I am not in a position to answer a question about someone else (read I-PAC),” he said.

Caught in a turf war

Party sources said Kishor’s team has been caught in a turf war between the party’s old guard close to Mamata, and her heir-apparent, nephew Abhishek Banerjee. Though the tension between the old and new guards has become more apparent now, it has been simmering ever since Abhishek was anointed as the TMC’s national general secretary last June, ostensibly as per the advice of the I-PAC, said the sources.

After taking charge, Abhishek tried to rejig the party organisation, announcing that it would strictly enforce a one-person, one-post policy, except for making concessions for Mamata, its chairperson and Bengal CM.

The announcement did not go down well with many senior party leaders who are holding multiple posts in the government as well as in the party. It became a major source of conflict between the two camps ahead of the December 19 Kolkata Municipal elections, with many senior sitting legislators, including ministers, vying to contest for councillor posts as well.

Amid the squabble, Mamata intervened to relax the policy, nominating MP Mala Roy and six MLAs, including transport minister and former Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim, for the civic polls, much to the chagrin of the Abhishek camp.

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After the party’s victory in the Kolkata civic poll, Hakim was once again appointed as the mayor while he also retained his ministerial berth. Since then, there has been a cold war between the two groups, with camp followers on either side occasionally even taking digs in public at some rival leaders.

Tirade against Abhishek Banerjee

That all is not well within the TMC became apparent when party MP Kalyan Banerjee launched an unexpected tirade against Abhishek last month, saying he would only consider Mamata his leader.

The outburst came after Abhishek advocated halting political programmes and religious meetings for two months amid surging COVID cases in the State in early January. His stand was in sharp contrast to the State government’s decision to allow the annual Gangasagar Mela, where lakhs of Hindu devotees from across the country gather to take a holy dip at the confluence of the Ganga and the Bay of Bengal at the Sagar Island, during the Makar Sankranti festival.

Old guards like Kalyan Banerjee took the party general secretary’s assertion as an affront to the policy of the State government headed by Abhishek’s aunt.

To bridge the difference, Mamata once again intervened recently, informing a closed-door meeting of TMC MPs ahead of the Budget Session of Parliament that henceforth she would personally look after the party organisation, a responsibility she had shared with Abhishek to focus more on government affairs.

One-person, one-post policy

Amid the strain in relations, Abhishek, in an interview to a TV channel on Sunday, reiterated that he was committed to enforce in totality the one-person, one-post policy in the party. He even suggested that there should be a fixed age-ceiling in politics.

“The party’s ageing leaders are naturally not happy with the comments,” said a TMC youth leader from East Midnapore. He added that the old guards got the chance to return the fire on Abhishek’s camp when a list of candidates for the February 27 elections to 108 municipal corporations was uploaded on the party website without Mamata’s approval.  The party later released another list.

The confusion, however, triggered massive protests by the supporters of those who did not make it to the final list. Many senior party leaders in private blamed the I-PAC for the confusion, accusing it of interfering in the internal organisational matters of the party. The I-PAC sources, however, denied their role in uploading the list.

It’s no secret that the I-PAC was roped in by Abhishek to revive the party’s sagging political fortunes after the 2019 general elections, in which the BJP put up a stunning performance, bagging 18 of the State’s 42 Lok Sabha seats.