Nov 25, 2024 09:03 PM IST
Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and TMC general secretary Abhishek will also serve as the official spokesperson for national affairs
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Monday set up several disciplinary committees at different levels to track party leaders who cross the red lines and take action against them, the party announced after a meeting of the party’s national working committee.
“The party has set up three disciplinary committees. One is for the leaders in the Parliament, the second is for the leaders in the state legislative assembly and the third is for other leaders of the party. The committees will issue show-cause notices to any party member who engages in anti-party activities. A member will be suspended if he gets three such show cause notices,” senior TMC leader and Bengal minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said after the meeting of the top party panel at the residence of chief minister Mamata Banerjee in Kalighat.
The TMC has also elevated five veteran leaders including assembly speaker Biman Banerjee, state minister Manas Bhunia and party MP Kalyan Banerjee to the party’s all-powerful working committee and appointed national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee as the party’s spokesperson for national affairs.
The parliament-level disciplinary committee would comprise Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Derek O’Brien, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Kalyan Banerjee and Nadimul Haque. The assembly-level disciplinary committee would include Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, Nirmal Ghosh, Debasish Kumar, Aroop Biswas, Firhad Hakim and Chandrima Bhattacharya. The disciplinary committee for other leaders of the party would include Subrata Bakshi, Aroop Biswas, Firhad Hakim, Chandrima Bhattacharya and Sujit Bose.
The move comes against the backdrop of out-of-turn statements by TMC leaders on multiple issues in recent months that have led to red faces in the party
For example, when the TMC-led government was facing flak over the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, TMC’s three-time Rajya Sabha member Sukhendu Sekhar Ray chose to attack the state’s police commissioner. In a post on X, Ray said that the CBI should take police commissioner Vineet Goyal into custody and question him. Santanu Sen, a former Rajya Sabha member, was also removed from the post of the party’s spokesperson for his statements on the case.
A party leader said Ray wasn’t present at Monday’s working committee meeting
Bhattachharge also said a report submitted by Abhishek Banerjee which is speculated to have proposed an overhaul of the party, was not discussed at the meeting.
On the winter session of Parliament, she said the TMC would raise a range of issues including price rise, unemployment, fertilizers, stopping of funds to the state and the Manipur violence.
She also said that the TMC would launch a series of programmes that seek to make the party’s younger leaders aware of its history while the women’s wing would hold rallies in various districts and blocks over the Aparajita Bill.
In September this year, the Mamata Banerjee-led government introduced and passed the Aparajita Women and Child (West Bengal Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, 2024 which proposed the death penalty for rape convicts while also introducing death as an alternative unishment for all categories of rape in the state-specific penal code.
“A 15-member delegation of TMC MPs and MLAs will seek time from President Droupadi Murmu after December 10 on this issue. The party’s women’s wing will also hold rallies on November 30 and December 1,” she added.
Get Current Updates on…
See more
