A group of suave, educated and social-networking young men and women are charting a new chapter for the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC). They may don the politician’s garb, the oft-repeated ‘kurta’, but look closely and you’ll notice designer shoes and watches, as well as Blackberry mobile phones. The All India Trinamool Yuva was started in April this year, just in time for state elections. With a catchy Gen Y anthem, the official launch happened on the occasion of Shaheed Divas (Martyrs’ Day) on July 21. Within a month of its launch, this youth group that prides itself in being “different” from the TMC Chhatra Parishad clocked more than one lakh members. Yuva is the brainchild of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s stylishly-dressed and technology-savvy nephew, Abhishek.
Twenty-five-year-old Abhishek seems to have drawn a leaf out of Rahul Gandhi’s endeavours with the youth wing of the Congress party. Yuva now plans to take the TMC to the national level by widening its ambit of members. As head of the TMC’s cyber cell, Abhishek roped in Hotmail founder Sabeer Bhatia. Now the wing’s first state convention to be held on January 27 in Kolkata plans to parade big names such as Sam Pitroda. Even though Abhishek steers clear of speaking to the media after his aunt’s historic win, an apparently proud Mamata had said in July that “It (Yuva) will have branches all over the country. I am sure bright and intelligent people will join the organisation” providing a platform for the next generation of TMC leaders. Under the mentorship of Union Railways Minister Dinesh Trivedi and state Industries and Commerce Minister Partha Chatterjee, Yuva’s primary objective is to nurture tomorrow’s leaders.
“We were getting numerous requests from young people who wanted to be a part of the TMC but had no access. While Yuva is a political wing of the party, what makes it special is that we are stressing imparting leadership skills and making members understand governance. We have spoken to various organisations to provide leadership skills,” says 24-year-old Karan Sharma, President of the West Bengal TMC Yuva, who is studying law at Calcutta University.
Yuva wants to provide opportunities to people who are educated, sincere and seriously interested in getting into politics. They can continue with their day-jobs and still be a part of the TMC which is aggressively trying to spread its influence in other states; and what better way than to attract the youth brigade. Samrat Mukherjee, 25-year-old MBA graduate, felt that the TMC Yuva was an ideal platform for deserving people to get political experience. “While we welcome everyone, we are manually scrutinising every application that is coming to us. We want to ensure that we people with criminal records shouldn’t get entry into the party and proper identity cards will be issued to them,” said Samrat Mukherjee who is the Kolkata President of TMC Yuva.
Yuva’s popularity and closeness to Didi’s heart have obviously sparked rivalry between Yuva and the party’s student body, TMC Chhatra Parishad. “Who is this Yuva? They are not even part of our party. It’s just something to keep Didi’s nephew busy,” quipped a senior member of the TMC Chhatra Parishad. The children of several hardened leaders belonging to the TMC have also joined Yuva hoping to hone their political skills before entering the mainstream in their parents’ footsteps.
“We are a more defined wing and admit people between 20 and 40 years. The TMC youth wing has 50- and 60-year olds,” added Sharma. Yuva has already campaigned for Subrata Bakshi when he contested by-elections in South Kolkata Lok Sabha constituency.