Why Mamata Banerjee is under pressure to overhaul Cabinet and organisation

Kolkata: Not everything is alright inside Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress. Mamata Banerjee is one of the few existing Indian politicians who emerged from a very middle-class family and grew up in grassroots movements.

When Banerjee left the Congress and formed the Trinamool Congress, some of her close aides, including her senior, joined her. Partha Chatterjee was one of Banerjee‘s most trusted lieutenants from the very beginning. Mamata Banerjee calls only some of the leaders by their names but as "Da," a short form of Dada (elder brother). Chatterjee was one such leader.

But now Banerjee is in a tough position. Her party is devastated by an alleged graft case. Chatterjee, who is the second most important cabinet minister after Banerjee and the Secretary General of the TMC, the third most important post is in jail. The nephew of Mamata Banerjee, who is the national general secretary of the party, Abhishek Banerjee, held a closed-door meeting yesterday with reportedly close to him.

A section of the leaders close to Abhishek Banerjee has already started raising questions against the current leadership, which includes Mamata Banerjee and her lieutenant. Several sections of the party have started putting pressure on Banerjee to revamp the existing cabinet and also the top leadership positions to remove the people who face allegations of corruption. Political pundits and insiders of the party believe that in this situation, to retain her image of honesty, Mamata Banerjee will be forced to take these decisions in a bid to stop any rift within her party.

What is the issue?

West Bengal Industry Minister and senior TMC leader Partha Chatterjee was detained by the Enforcement Directorate on Saturday, July 23, in connection with an alleged scam involving the recruitment of teachers in the state. According to the Trinamool Congress (TMC), which claims this was a "ploy" by the central government. This follows nighttime raids on Friday that resulted in the seizure of Rs 20 crore from Chatterjee's assistant Arpita Mukherjee's home as part of the probe. She was then taken into custody by the organisation. The senior minister in the case was in charge of education at the time the alleged scam occurred, and the ED accused him of malfeasance. Prior to his detention, Chatterjee was questioned by the ED for 24 hours.

A look into the alleged SSC scam

When Chatterjee was in charge of state education, the scheme allegedly took place. On the recommendations of the West Bengal School Service Commission, it involved suspected anomalies in the appointment of Group C and D workers as well as teachers in government-sponsored and aided schools (WBSSC). The accusation made against Chatterjee is that he gave positions in exchange for cash to applicants who received lower exam scores than those who passed on merit.

The senior minister was questioned twice earlier this year in relation to the investigation that the Calcutta High Court directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct into the case. More than 600 staff members of Group D, according to a commission set up to investigate the scheme, were illegally hired. A division bench-appointed investigating committee reported that 381 candidates in Group C had been hired unlawfully. In addition, the committee claimed that a panel chosen by the Joint Secretary of the West Bengal government to supervise the hiring of over 13,000 non-teaching staff members lacked any legal standing.

How central agencies have been putting pressure on TMC

After Narendra Modi came to power, the Bharatiya Janata Party targeted some states where the party had no significant presence. Bengal was one of them. In the 2019 Bengal Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party won 18 out of 42 seats, which was a record. This was part of a grand plan of the Bharatiya Janata Party and its parent organization, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. From that time onwards, the BJP cracked down heavily against Mamata Banerjee and her party. Before the 2021 Bengal assembly elections, the BJP allegedly used its money and power to break the TMC and take away several key leaders from the party.

However, Mamata Banerjee stood strong and fought back. With the help of Bengali nationalism, Hindi – the Bengali divide, combating aggressive Hindutva and other issues Banerjee won the Bengal assembly elections and it was a historic victory. Within weeks of this victory, the leaders who shifted the boat before the elections started their Ghar Vaapsi.

On the other hand, the CBI and ED started investigating Abhishek Banerjee and his wife for alleged coal mining scams. Immediately after the results of the Bengal assembly elections, the CBI arrested three TMC top brass, including the mayor of Kolkata, Firhad Hakim, for the Naroda scam.

The CBI is also investigating the involvement of another heavyweight TMC leader, Anubrata Mandal, who is the Birbhum district president of the party. The central agencies have been interrogating more than 5 TMC ministers, many MLAs, district leadership and others in several cases.

How Mamata is under pressure from insiders

Recently India has witnessed how the BJP forced the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra. The party got split and the rebel section now has come to power with the help of the BJP. The situation is not the same in Bengal. But with the growing pressure on the senior leaders and Cabinet ministers from the central agencies a significant section of the party believes that there is a need of revamping the organisation. And the TMC now has two power centres. One is Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the second is her nephew Abhishek Banerjee.

Since 2016 Abhishek Banerjee has been raising the issue of organisational and cabinet to revamp. According to reports he has requested Mamata Banerjee several times to remove all the top cabinet ministers and leaders who have any allegations of corruption. However, Mamata Banerjee has not done much in this regard.

After the issue of Partha Chatterjee came in front of the public Abhishek Banerjee and people close to him have reportedly started raising this demand again. According to sources in TMC, a significant section of leaders close to Abhishek is in the view that Mamata Banerjee should make all the Cabinet ministers resign and then form a new cabinet. However, there is no concrete decision yet. Senior leaders of the party believe that Mamata Banerjee must look into all these demands because any tension within the party might cost heavily to the organisation in the future.