Mamata forms 20-member working committee of TMC to stem discord

Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee on Saturday announced a 20-member national working committee amid a growing rift within the party.

Banerjee will later name the new office bearers of the party, senior TMC leader Partha Chatterjee told reporters after a meeting at the West Bengal chief minister's Kalighat residence.

The announcement is seen as a bid to assert Banerjee's control over the party, and stem dissension between a section of TMC's old guards and the next generation leaders.

"After Mamata Banerjee was re-elected as the chairperson of the party, she had announced a small committee to look after party affairs. Today there was a meeting of that committee, and in that meeting, she has announced the new national working committee of the party," Chatterjee said.

"Mamata Banerjee will later appoint the new office bearers and then it would be sent to the election commission," he added.

Among the leaders who found a place in the national working committee are Amit Mitra, Partha Chatterjee, Subrata Bakshi, Sudip Bandopadhyay, Abhishek Banerjee, Anubrata Mondal, Aroop Biswas, Firhad Hakim and Yashwant Sinha.

"Till Mamata Banerjee announces the new list of office bearers, all the other posts of the last committee cease to exist," another senior TMC leader.

The party's young leaders led by Abhishek Banerjee have been vocal for 'one person one post' in TMC, drawing criticism from a section of veteran leaders who publicly accused them of violating party discipline.