Growing up in the humble tiled roof home of his aunt, Banerjee learnt a few organisational lessons as the head of a voluntary organisation named Yuba. He tested the waters in West Bengal politics participating in a small procession with the progeny of other TMC leaders including Firad Hakim, Kalyan Bandopadhayay and a few others before 2011 state Assembly elections seeking people's support in the coming polls for TMC, his aunt’s party..

Taking the plunge in active politics in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Abhishek Banerjee won from Diamond Harbour constituency in South-24-Parganas. Passage of time witnessed him emerging as the second power centre in TMC with whom a group of young leaders hitched their political fortunes.

If a group of senior TMC leaders including Partha Chatterjee and Jyotipriya Mallick looked askance at his rapid rise, Abhishek could not care less. The ire of the veterans' who had been with Mamata Banerjee through thick and thin and therefore in her inner circle of advisers, was negated by his proximity to the TMC supremo.

Abhishek’s political stock sky rocketed following his 2019 Lok Sabha election victory on a larger margin than his debut five years ago. His victory margin shot up despite a BJP wave blowing across West Bengal noticing which the party supremo Mamata offered him more responsibilities for the expansion of TMC activities.

Come 2021 state Assembly elections, Abhishek roping in poll guru Prashant Kishor and his firm I-Pac made a game changer move by orchestrating TMC's campaign path. Defying massive poll campaign by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah, TMC returned to power for the third successive term with supremo Mamata Banerjee nursing a gammy leg rallying around together with Abhishek and her supporters

This marked Abhishek well and truly emerging the second in command in TMC. It was also the beginning of his rift with the old guard whom he sought to replace with younger leaders. Larger cutouts of Abhishek than her aunt's rubbed the TMC supremo the wrong way and she expressed her displeasure in no uncertain terms, according to party sources. He sulked for sometime but later returned to the party fold. .

The 2021 Assembly elections results also ushered in BJP as the only Opposition party in the state Assembly. For the first time in the post independence period neither the Congress nor the Left was sans any representation in the Assembly.

The point of time when TMC appeared to be invincible in West Bengal, it was hit by the cattle and coal smuggling charges which was made worse by recovery of huge cash from the residences of party secretary general, Partha Chatterjee leading to his imprisonment in the cash for teaching jobs case together with some other leaders.

This time span also witnessed the arrests of the TMC,'s Birbhum strongman Anubrata Mondal and state forest minister Jyotipriya Mallick on an array of allegations. Even if Abhishek's name surfaced in a few cases, he met CBI and ED officials on being summoned and spent long interrogation sessions. ED summoned Abhishek number of times in the recent months, but finally was able to secure a Supreme Court order that ED would not disturb him till the polls are over.

Abhishek played a major role in the selection of the TMC candidates for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The list of 42 was a mix of mostly candidates of younger generation and a few veterans. The TMC senapati as he is called implemented a modern method of assessment of candidates winnability and the final selection was made on that basis.

Clearly displaying who is the boss, Mamata Banerjee showed Abhishek his place in the chain of command in the party. Its fallout was TMC's Baranagar legislator Tapas Roy defecting to BJP and taking on Sudip Bandopadhyay at Kolkata (North) Lok Sabha in the coming polls. Yet Abhishek managed to replace Barrackpore MP Arjun Singh with his own man Partha Bhoumik. It led to Singh taking on Bhoumik as a BJP nominee but also rid TMC of a perpetual troublemaker.

Political observers and TMC insiders were surprised in 2014 at Abhishek choosing to contest from Diamond Harbour, a longstanding Left bastion where Kamal Basu won in 1952 and later Jyotrirmoy Bose of CPI(M) emerged victorious a number of times. It was to Somen Mitra 'organisational skills to which TMC victory in 2009 Lok Sabha polls was ascribed.

Abhishek polled 508481 votes against his nearest CPI(M) rival Dr Abul Hasnat in 2014 elections. In 2019 elections he polled 791127 votes against his nearest BJP rival Nilanjan Roy who secured 470533 votes and conceded a larger margin

A driving force in building the crucial link of Pujali bridge at Budge Budget the Diamond Harbour MP has been instrumental in securing a wide spectrum of schemes involving state government largesse including old age pension, Lakshmir Bhander and Rupasree to name a few to his voters. Incidentally, he faces the easiest electoral contest this time if the list of the candidates pitted against him is anything to go by.

After much fanfare accompanying his announcement, Indian Secular Front leader Naushad Siddiqui chose not to contest from Diamond Harbour against Abhishek. The sitting MP would have faced a stiff fight had Naushad himself contested from this minority dominated constituency. Majnu Laskar, the ISF nominee in the fray is a political non entity. Naushad was promised support by the Congress-LF combine and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikary indicated that the BJP would like a common candidate against the’’ chor Bhaipo” (Thief nephew). Now the contest will be a drab one with no worthwhile candidate of opposition in a position to challenge the TMC senapati.

For all its student campaign against Abhishek, the BJP has not yet named a candidate against him giving a final twist in the tale. If another deal between the saffron camp and TMC is alleged by the Left, it is unlikely to be capitalised upon as the CPI(M) nominee Pratik Ur Rahman has neither the political heft nor the influence in the area . Both the Congress and the CPI(M) organization is too weak to offer any credible fight to Abhishek. For TMC, it seems a cakewalk victory as of now. (IPA Service)