The first strains have begun to show

Pranab Mukherjee’s son Abhijit,who has resigned as head of the West Bengal Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation,cites “personal reasons”. Congress leaders,however,confided that his father had asked him to quit. This was because state leaders had been grumbling about Mamata’s unilateral decisions,appointing handpicked Congress leaders to key positions “in a bid to divide the party”.

In the third week of June,she “appointed” Pranab Mukherjee’s sister-in-law Subhra Ghosh as chairperson of West Bengal Women’s Development Undertaking,but the latter said she has not yet received an official communication. “I am totally in the dark,” she said.

The Congress is wary because Mamata has also been “poaching on the party”,inducting leaders Sukhendu Sekhar Roy and Sourav Chakraborty in the Trinamool Congress and giving both key positions.

Apart from Abhijit Mukherjee’s resignation,another occasion when the Congress high command had to intervene was Mamata’s July 21 rally in Kolkata. She had invited her cabinet colleagues from the Congress but sent no official invite to the party; Pranab Mukherjee later advised party leaders not to attend,sources said.

Congress MLA Manoj Chakraborty,meanwhile,has offered to quit as Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs as he was “not given much importance in the functioning of my department”.

Also disappointed is former IPS officer Islam,whose new job is OSD,Co-ordination,Home Department. He has written to Home Secretary G D Gautama seeking clarifications on the post.

Once a bitter critic of the Left Front,Islam had been “rescued” by then Railway Minister Mamata and rehabilitated in her ministry as executive director,security,before she gave him the state posting 10 days ago.

“I was allotted this post but given no rank. After that I was given the rank of ADG but in the secretariat there cannot be an ADG; they should have given me the post of principal secretary,” Islam is said to have written.

A close aide said Islam is “thoroughly disillusioned” with Mamata for saying things “diametrically opposite to what she had said before the elections” and who,he has reportedly told them,is “surrounded by people who are giving her bad advice.”

“After coming to power,it was Mamata who had asked him whether he was interested in coming back to Kolkata and he agreed. In fact,Islam thought he would be given a job like the Commissioner of Police — Ranjit Pachnanda is an acting one — or an important job in the CMO,or a job of ADG rank in the state police. He was given a post that does not entail any scope of work,” a Home official said.

The job profile includes drafting of a new police Act,monitoring of ongoing schemes of Kolkata and West Bengal police,and liaison between Kolkata and West Bengal police.

Islam is also a novelist and a poet who will be conferred a D Litt,by Calcutta University for his contribution to Bengali literature.

Among intellectuals she has sought to tap,Professor Emeritus of Jadavpur University Sukanta Chaudhuri has resigned from the higher education committee headed by retired college professor Sunanda Sanyal. He later accepted an advisory position in the mentor board for Presidency University,one of several other panels Mamata has formed.

Many others have refused key positions in her various committees. Poets Nirendranath Chakravarty and Sankha Ghosh have both opted out of a Rabindra Rachanabali committee to publish Tagore’s works. Chakravarty,who was supposed to head it,cited ill health. But Ghosh,who was to be the deputy chairman,said,“He (Chakravarty) pulled out because I did,” he said. “There’s a lack of coordination and discipline in the committee forming procedure. It convinced me to not be part of it.”

Writer Sunil Gangopadhyay and filmmaker Mrinal Sen too have refused positions.

Filmmaker Tarun Majumdar,who used to be part of the Kolkata Film Festival Committee headed by former CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee,has refused a position in the new advisory committee set up for the festival,headed by actor Ranjit Mullick. He cited work pressure but he has also expressed his reservations about the committee: “There are already too many people in it. Let’s hope it doesn’t turn out to be a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth.”