In successive elections in West Bengal at all levels ? from village panchayats to the Lok Sabha and most recently in the by-polls for the state Assembly ? the groundswell of support for Mamata Banerjee has been established beyond doubt. The state looks poised for a change of guard by 2011, or even earlier. The mandate for change has been reflected unequivocally in the outcome of these elections.

But despite her stunning electoral successes, some fundamental questions about Mamata Banerjee and her party remain as valid as they were before Banerjee?s winning streak began and the Trinamool Congress was only a single MP party. Are Banerjee and her party equipped organisationally to hold onto the political advantage? In the past, organisational weakness has cost her dearly.

For now, of course, Banerjee and her party are riding a popular wave. In the Rajgunj Assembly by-polls, for example, where the Trinamool thumped its way to victory by vanquishing the CPI(M) that has held the seat since 1977, Banerjee hardly had any organisation worth the name.

But the lack of organisational heft as it take on the regimented CPI(M) could be a problem that is waiting to catch up with the Trinamool. At the fag end of 2006, for instance, before the Nandigram-Singur agitations catapaulted her onto political centrestage, Banerjee had very little organisational strength in the 19 districts of Bengal. Even in Nandigram, during the agitation which was initiated in November 2006, it was the cadres and local leaders of CPI(M) who switched sides and spearheaded the agitation. In Singur, her point man was Becharam Manna, a former CPI(M) leader of the area.

Though Trinamool Congress committees have been set up in all the districts, many are not active at ground level. Even in booth level organisations in the districts, till date it is a motley crowd of former Congressmen, former CPI(M) men and some locals who keep the party work going.

In stark contrast, the CPI(M), though battered by the recent poll reverses, still flaunts 26,000 grassroot level units in Bengal. It has around 3,500 local committees and around 400 zonal committees. Then, there are the Left allies, all with their own areas of strength.

By all accounts, Banerjee seems to have realised her party?s inadequacy and is trying to make amends. Party leaders say that countering the CPI(M)?s organisational superiority has become her primary cause for concern.

Banerjee has taken a number of initiatives. The Trinamol Congress is treading into areas where it had been largely absent or existed only in slogans and on signboards. Notable among these are a party unit for the first time in Writers? Building, a Trinamool Congress backed union in the Kolkata police, and revamped branches like the Trinamool Youth Congress and the Indian National Trinamool Trade Union Congress.

The first step was to bring in fresh faces in her core committee including them in the leadership of the Youth Trinamool Congress and All India Trinamool Trade Union Congress.

The Trinamool chief brought in East Midnapore MP, Suvendu Adhikary, who led the Nandigram agitations, as general secretary of the Youth Congress. She also brought Purnendu Bose into the trade union wing. Adhikary, who is one of the youngest MPs in her party, is expected to boost her youth brigade in the state. Bose, who was a former Naxal leader and close aide of the legendary Kanu Sanyal, is expected to spruce up the trade union wing.

In addition, she has evolved a model of setting up various forums or ?manch? to rope in different sectors of the civil society who might otherwise hesitate to associate with the political party directly.

Till now it is largely Banerjee?s personal charisma and the profound urge for a change that has propelled the Trinamool Congress to such success, having dented Left bastions in urban as well as rural belts. But to latch on to the wave and to take things forward Banerjee and the Trinamool Congress will require greater organisational skills and acumen.