Abhishek Banerjee's push within TMC | Growing new roots

F or years now, Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and chosen heir as party chief, has been trying to fill out his role as future supremo by spearheading a kind of ethical cleansing. His crusade continued in the aftermath of the arrests of former education minister Partha Chatterjee in the alleged teachers’ recruitment scam in July 2022 and party heavyweight Anubrata Mondal in the cattle smu­ggling racket in August. As popular outrage mounted over the scams as well as a string of crimes allegedly connected to party workers, Abhishek promised real change, real fast. And, faced with a worsening public perception, fanned by central agencies making newer arrests in the jobs scam, including that of TMC MLAs, the party is forced to accept the need for a course correction.