Amid intense crisis in the TMC, rebel leader Kakoli Ghosh on Thursday said 20 MPs are with the rebel camp and more people are in talks with them. "Till now, there are 20 (TMC) MPs, but the number can rise. People are in talks with us, " she said. On TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee's comment against her over RG Kar case, Kakoli Ghosh said he should remember that the night there was a protest, her daughter and son were on the roads, and her younger son was lathi-charged. “I myself had spoken to my leader," she said.
Kakoli Ghosh on reports of TMC-Congress merger
On reports of TMC-Congress merger, Kakoli Ghosh said neither was she in that meeting (Mamata Banerjee-Sonia Gandhi) nor was her opinion sought. “She (Mamata Banerjee) is a senior and experienced leader; it is her wish as to what she will do," she said.
Political crisis in TMC worsened earlier this week
The political crisis in the TMC worsened earlier this week after senior party MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar claimed that nearly 20 TMC parliamentarians decided to support the NDA and had communicated their position to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.
Kakoli said a letter had already been sent to the Speaker conveying the group's desire to back the ruling alliance at the Centre. "Nearly 20 TMC MPs, including me, have written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla about our decision to support the NDA," she said.
Claiming that she continued to be the party's chief whip in the Lok Sabha, Ghosh Dastidar said the decision was taken after consultations with fellow MPs. The development comes amid an intensifying internal crisis within the Mamata Banerjee-led party, which has witnessed open dissent and resignations by senior leaders in recent days.
Kakoli says the rebel group decided to align itself politically with NDA
Kakoli said the group had decided to align itself politically with the NDA, arguing that it reflected the popular mandate. "We have accepted the people's verdict and believe that our future political course should be aligned with the NDA," she said.
Last month, senior MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar quit all organisational posts and launched a political broadside, invoking corruption allegations, the RG Kar row and the growing grip of I-PAC over the party machinery. In a letter addressed to TMC state president Subrata Bakshi, Dastidar sought to be relieved of all organisational responsibilities, including her role as chairperson of the All India Trinamool Mahila Congress.
However, Dastidar has not resigned as the Lok Sabha MP from Barasat and continues in Parliament, indicating that her move, at least for now, stops short of a complete political rupture with the party. But the letter carried the weight of something larger, less a resignation note and more a pointed indictment of the party's internal climate.
"My conscience is deeply disturbed," she wrote, referring to allegations surrounding the ration scam, recruitment irregularities and "financial and administrative improprieties" which, according to her, had generated "anger and distrust" among ordinary people. An alumnus of RG Kar Medical College, Dastidar also referred to the rape and murder of a doctor at the institution and allegations of an attempted cover-up, saying the episode had "personally shaken" her.
In perhaps her most politically loaded remark, she took a swipe at a fellow TMC MP without naming him, in an apparent reference to Kalyan Banerjee. "There is little meaning in remaining in a position where one cannot stop the indecent conduct of an uncultured and rude party MP towards a woman MP, and where support and empathy are absent from the higher leadership," Dastidar, a close confidante of Mamata Banerjee since the eighties, wrote.
The remark assumes significance as Dastidar was recently removed as chief whip of the TMC's parliamentary party, with the responsibility returning to Kalyan Banerjee - a move that had visibly upset her. Soon after her removal, she had posted on social media: "Known since 1976, journey started in 1984. Four decades of loyalty rewarded today."
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Rebel TMC leader Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar announces to form separate faction, claims support of 20 MPs
