Mamata Banerjee reappoints nephew Abhishek Banerjee as TMC national gen secy after reported rift

At a meeting held to reconstitute the National Working Committee, the top decision making body of the ruling party of West Bengal, Abhishek Banerjee was reappointed as the party's All India General Secretary.

The meeting was held at Mamata Banerjee's residence in Kolkata days after the party swept to victory in municipal elections in four major towns despite media reports of the internal rift.

Veteran politicians Yashwant Sinha along with Chandrima Bhattacharya and Subrata Bakshi were made the national vice presidents.

Economic and external policies will be decided by Yashwant Sinha and Amit Mitra.

Coordination of committees will be taken care of by Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim.

Meanwhile,  Sukhendu Sekhar Roy will be the spokesperson of the party in Rajya Sabha while Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar will be the same for the Lok Sabha.

Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Mahua Moitra and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar have been appointed as the national spokespersons.

Northeastern states will be looked after by Sushmita Dev, Mukul Sangma and Subal Bhowmick

Bengal minister Aroop Biswas has been named as the treasurer in the meeting.

The controversy of internal differences first started after a dual list of candidates were released for the Feb 12 civic polls, feeding the speculations over a rift between Mamata and Abhishek.

The supposed infighting within the party reached the peak with senior TMC MLA Madan Mitra telling a news channel that the I-PAC will no longer work for the outfit.

Last week, committee members were replaced amid an internal rift between supporters of Abhishek Banerjee and Mamata's loyalists. All posts and the entire committee was disbanded.

In re-constituting the National Working Committee, Mamata re-asserted her control over party affairs by positioning veteran leaders in the top post including Abhishek Banerjee.