Adept at cracking brain teasers, Kolkatans with a little guidance from the party faithful and fellow travellers deciphered the latter as the date of the CPI(M) rally at Brigade Parade Ground on 7 January. It is a teaser to expand the crowd next Sunday.

But the other poster is being spoken of in whispers. For it can be what newcomers in ruling Trinamool Congress feel is a call to push out veterans in the party to let the young guns take over.

It means disobeying the instructions of party supremo Mamata Banerjee who has asked for a fruitful co-existence with veterans being respected by the newcomers. Small wonder, even as it calls for change, no names are mentioned.

Previous posters on Kolkata walls announcing Mao Ze Dong to be the chairman of a new ultra Left outfit or another proclaiming Indira Gandhi to be the sun of liberation of South East Asia did not hide the identity of the organisation putting up the posters. There was nothing secretive about them.

But the persons putting up the posters for change have good reason to be furtive. Once caught in the act of plastering the city walls with posters, they will invite disciplinary action. Instead of coming out in the open, these "volunteers" prefer to be "wheels within wheel". The matter surfacing on the foundation day of Trinamool Congress is snowballing.

In the war of words that erupted fuel has been added to the fire of controversy by the comments of party's state secretary, Subrata Bakshi. He rubbed the Abhishek camp the wrong way after thinking aloud that he hoped that the young leader (Abhishek) won't leave the field of battle.

If Bakshi was reprimanded by his choice of words, Abhishek closeted in his close circle has reportedly expressed his reluctance of not campaigning outside his constituency Diamond Harbour on the poll bugle is sounded. Meanwhile, no one has screwed up the courage to tell him that it is his aunt, the party supremo whose campaigning matters as she is the most charismatic face of the party.

Abhishek, it was learnt from party sources has not been participating in organisational matters after Bakshi's intervention. He has not been intervening in intra-party squabbles after Bakshi started to mediate in them.

The tussle to be in a position to call the shots boiled down to be a war of words between the old guard and the new. Old timers can refresh their collective memories recalling the tug of war between the Sanjay Gandhi acolytes led by Subrata Mukherjee and the likes of Lakshmikanta Bose rallying behind the then chief minister Siddhartha Sankar Ray.In the Congress of 1970s

Their verbal duels had degenerated into street fights. The rift in Trinamool Congress is yet to descend to those depths but the cracks are there for all to see as in the infighting in North-24-Parganas between TMC MP Arjun Singh and party MLA Somnath Shyam.

Meanwhile, the war of words continues in the ruling dispensation with Kolkata (North) MP Sudip Bandopadhyay claiming that West Bengal gets importance in national politics owing to Mamata Banerjee. Dubbing this contention as "blind obedience" party spokesman, Kunal Ghosh shot back asking how come he (Bandopadhyay) is saying this even after seeing the impact of the agitation led by Abhishek in Delhi where Mamata Banerjee was not present.

The software of the veterans needs to be updated, North-24-Parganas Sabhadhipati, and MLA Narayan Goswami said thereby adding to the fussillade. Addressing a function, Ghosh has added to it saying what a young man can do is not possible for an octogenarian.

Trying to pour oil on troubled waters, agriculture minister, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay said that Mamata Banerjee has thrice been elected chief minister amidst such spats. The Opposition is enjoying a vicarious pleasure in this situation.

Such rifts are natural in regional and dynastic parties, state BJP spokesman, Samik Bhattacharya said while CPI(,M) leader , Sujan Chakraborty felt whether it was a puppet show for the benefit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Opposition carping is fine but it is doubtful how much of TMC dissension can be utilised to its benefit.

With Lok Sabha elections almost round the corner, the young need to sweat for the veterans in the campaign trail. Many a TMC maverick had won their spurs while campaigning not for only elderly but non-political party nominees like Kabir Suman, Sandhya Roy and Moonmoon Sen; apprehensions of these young activists in the backdrop of these spats not doing their bit in 2024 Lok Sabha elections cannot be ruled out.

Fuelling the apprehension of "wilful inaction", a young leader said that some of our MPs will have to work read campaign harder to retain his/her seat indicating thereby of the inactive young activists. The TMC leadership has given a call to bury all differences in view of the coming elections; the Opposition its organisational muscle slack seems to have set its sights on the differences in the ruling dispensation of West Bengal but ultimately, TMC will fight unitedly under Mamata as happened before also. (IPA Service)