Team News Riveting
Kolkata, February 8
Even as the political corridor is abuzz with the reports of Trinamool Congress (TMC) reportedly deciding to snap ties with Prashant Kishor’s Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), the stakeholders are however not shedding light on the development.
While Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee refused to entertain questions on the speculations, Trinamool Secretary-General Partha Chatterjee apparently tried to play down rumours of the rift and Kishor remained silent in public although sources close to him said he was “upset” by recent developments.
Trinamool’s Number Two Abhishek Banerjee, known to heavily back the poll consultant, has been keeping his cards close to the chest.
The simmering differences between TMC and poll strategist Kishor spilled out in open over candidates’ lists for civic polls. Both Mamata and Chatterjee put stamps to the party’s official lists of candidates for 107 municipalities polls due on February 27 setting aside the list of Kishor’s I-Pac released on Friday. The development is believed to have dramatically worsened the relationship between Trinamool and Kishor’s I-Pac.
Prashant Kishor texted Mamata Banerjee saying I-PAC doesn’t want to work with TMC in Bengal, Tripura, Meghalaya, two days ago. In reply, Banerjee wrote, “Thank You”. Among others, state ministers were not happy with I-PAC’s influence over government departments.
Sources said that the developments unfolding had been given overt signals that Mamata had been in favour of reducing the clout of Kishor in the party and the government. “There have been several indications of her favouring the stand of the old guard, as opposed to that of Kishor and Abhishek, most notably in the intervention for selection of candidates for the Calcutta civic polls,” a political observer here said.
