Mamata named chairperson of TMC’s parliamentary party

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been named the new chairperson of the parliamentary party of Trinamool Congress in a move aimed at giving her a higher national profile ahead of next parliamentary elections in 2024. 

Mamata (66) is at present neither a member of parliament nor a member of West Bengal assembly. She was defeated in the recent assembly poll by her former party colleague Suvendu Adhikari, of Bharatiya Janata Party, in Nandigram.

"Mamata Banerjee will become our Trirnamool parliamentary party chairperson. This is a reality we are formalising. She was already guiding the parliamentary party. This is a strategic decision," the party leaders told a press conference yesterday, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

Mamata takes over as TMC parliamentary party chairman from party colleague and Lok Sabha MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay.

Mamata thus joins only a select few political leaders who have headed the parliamentary contingent of their parties without being elected to parliament.

In 1998, Sonia Gandhi had led the Congress parliamentary party without being a lawmaker.

Mamata's becoming TMC parliamentary group head is viewed as an attempt to facilitate a bigger role for her in uniting the country's disparate opposition against the BJP.

During her visit to New Delhi in a few days, Mamata is expected to meet a number of opposition leaders, including Congress President Sonia Gandhi, and explore the possibility of the opposition putting up a united face against Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP in the next general elections.   

Mamata had unsuccessfully made a similar effort to put together an opposition unity in the run up to 2019 general elections.

During her stay in Delhi, Mamata is also likely to meet Modi in what would be their first in-person meeting since the bad blood between them during the assembly elections.

On July 21, Mamata had been highly critical of the Modi government over the Pegasus spyware controversy, alleging that the Centre was trying to turn India into a surveillance state.