Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, May 27: Dealing a severe blow to the Trinamool Congress (TMC), the party Member of Parliament Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar on Wednesday not only resigned from all the organisational posts she was holding in the party, but also highlighted some charges of irregularities during the rule of the chief minister Mamata Banerjee even while maintaining that she would not quit the party and would continue to function as an “ordinary member.”
A day after Ms Ghosh Dastidar attended an administrative review meeting chaired by the first BJP chief minister of West Bengal Suvendu Adhikari, she resigned from all posts that she held in the party including president of the party’s Women’s Cell. In her resignation letter, she wrote, “There is no point occupying a post from where one cannot stop the misbehaviour of a fellow MP of the party towards a woman MP or gain cooperation on the matter from senior leaders.”
In her letter to TMC Bengal chief Subrata Bakshi, Dastidar expressed anguish over alleged corruption cases, the RG Kar Medical College incident, and the growing influence of “opaque and undemocratic” forces within the party. She also criticised the lack of support from senior leadership over the alleged misogynistic behaviour of another educated MP towards women MPs of the party.
The letter also cited corruption in public distribution system, appointment of teachers, irregularities in governance and finance and the rape and murder of the trainee doctor in the state-run RG Kar Medical Cllege and Hostel, one of the most controversial issues during Ms Banerjee’s tenure, and allegations of a cover-up that, she wrote, has “sparked dissatisfaction and mistrust among the people.” “I too have felt the moral sting,” she wrote.
“When someone serves as the President or Chairperson of an organisation, the primary responsibility for its functioning and outcomes usually rests upon them. I fail to live up to this responsibility—specifically, we lose 5 out of the 7 assembly segments; that is precisely why, acting on moral grounds, I stepped down from the post,” she said.
“Then there is also the concern many feel about the allegations against I-PAC. If a democratic system within a party has been overshadowed by an undemocratic, murky influence, then I don’t think it is good for the ideals and the heritage of a party,” she wrote. She, however, underscored that she would not quit the party and stay on as an “ordinary worker.”
Dastidar also criticized political consultancy i-PAC, blaming the firm for the TMC’s poor election performance. She claimed that members of the election strategy team behaved disrespectfully toward party workers.
“In the 2026 elections, the responsibility for managing the campaign lay with an external agency—iPAC. They lacked the experience of fighting elections, unlike us, who have contested several elections… Their general working methodology was flawed, and they behaved rudely toward our party workers. They treated people poorly, and their arrogance grew to such an extent that they eventually began treating us badly as well. They seemed to think they were at a higher authority than even the Prime Minister,” she added.
The allegations about IPAC, which had started since it was hired by Abhishek Banerjee — party MP and the nephew of Mamata Banerjee — have grown since the defeat in the assembly election. Senior leaders like Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Kalyan Banerjee have publicly accused I-PAC of arrogance and having zero understanding of ground-level electoral politics.
There have also been allegations that the organistion started by poll strategist-turned politician Prashant Kishor, sidelined established leaders, maligned grassroots cadres, and restricted direct access to Mamata Banerjee.
All the criticisms ultimately reflected on Abhishek Banerjee, whose rise within the party had irked veterans who had stayed at the side of Mamata Banerjee since she broke away from the Congress and formed Trinamool Congress. It had also sparked the first wave of exodus to the BJP ahead of the 2021 elections.
Many of the leaders eventually had returned to the party after its sweeping victory in the 2021 assembly elections. The historic victory of the BJP in Bengal this time appears to have set off another wave. Already, reports say over 100 councillors have left the Trinamool Congress.
There is a buzz that other senior leaders are on their way out, especially after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari recently invited Trinamool MPs and MLAs to attend government administrative meetings, marking a major departure from past practices.
A senior BJP leader Saumitra Khan has claimed that nearly 20 MPs and 50 MLAs from the TMC were in contact with the BJP and are prepared to switch sides if the party leadership approves their induction. Khan alleged that several TMC MPs are unhappy within the party and were maintaining communication with leaders in the saffron camp. “Twenty TMC MPs are in touch with us. If the party leadership wants, they are ready to switch sides. If the BJP wants, the entire TMC will wind up in the next few days,” Khan, a three-term Lok Sabha MP, told reporters.
The TMC currently has 29 MPs in the Lok Sabha out of 42 from West Bengal, whereas the BJP has 12 and the Congress has one.
Rejecting Khan’s claims, senior TMC MP Sougata Roy termed the reports as “baseless.” “It is absolutely bogus what the BJP and Soumitra Khan are feeding to reporters. Nothing of this sort will happen,” Roy said.
