9-member panel replaces Sudip, to steer TMC’s North Kolkata unit

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress on Friday replaced Kolkata (North) MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay as the party's North Kolkata president and tasked a nine-member core committee with decision-making. Bandyopadhyay, however, was made the party's North Kolkata chairperson.There was dissent in the party's North Kolkata unit against Bandyopadhyay in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, leading to the defection of MLA Tapas Roy to BJP. While Trinamool was successful in handling the dissent and scripting Bandyopadhyay's record fourth LS win, the MP's role — or lack thereof — came under question again as the party battled the fallout of the RG Kar rape-murder.In a press release, Trinamool said the North Kolkata core committee would include party veterans Atin Ghosh, Jibon Saha, Nayana Bandyopadhyay, Paresh Paul, Shashi Panja, Supti Pandey, Swapan Samadar, Swarna Kamal Saha and Vivek Gupta. Party state general secretary and spokesperson Kunal Ghosh, who led the charge against Bandyopadhyay before the LS polls only to bury the hatchet later, is also not a part of this core committee.Trinamool also did not announce its Barasat party district office-bearers. This zone includes Salt Lake and New Town. No formal reason was provided, it only said, "To be announced later." MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and state fire services minister Sujit Bose play a key role in the organisational affairs in this zone, but in not announcing the office-bearers (chairperson and president), Trinamool indicated it was weighing other candidates.Another notable change centred around Trinamool's Birbhum strongman Anubrata Mondal. He was the party's Birbhum president till he was arrested and imprisoned for a year and a half till his release in Sept 2024. Trinamool had formed a five-member core committee to helm party affairs in his absence in Birbhum during the parliamentary polls. After his release, Mondal was drafted in the core committee and asked to chair it, but not given independent charge.This "collective leadership model" got its stamp of approval from Trinamool brass on Friday. According to the party release, this core committee will have nine members — Mondal, Abhijit Sinha, Asish Banerjee, Bikas Roy Chowdhury, Chandranath Sinha, Kajal Sk and Sudipto Ghosh. MPs from Birbhum, Shatabdi Roy and Asit Kumar Mal, will be ex officio members. Banerjee, who is also the deputy speaker, will be the district chairperson.Krishnanagar MP Mahua Moitra remains Trinamool's Krishnanagar district president. Her appointment comes in the wake of two assembly segments in her Lok Sabha — Kaliaganj and Tehatta — becoming vacant due to the deaths of MLAs. Moitra was recently involved in a controversy with colleague Kalyan Banerjee but had maintained silence on the issue in public. Her position was also vindicated by Delhi High Court recently in the cash-for-query case.