In a major political setback for Mamata Banerjee and her party, Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, who publicly voiced disappointment against party leadership, on Wednesday (May 27) resigned from all party posts. The TMC MP from Barasat has resigned as the chairperson of the Women's Trinamool wing and from other positions.
This came after Banerjee removed Dastidar as chief whip of the TMC parliamentary party, giving the key responsibility to senior MP Kalyan Banerjee.
Dastidar writes to party’s Bengal unit chief
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 misconduct of a party MP. However, Dastidar clarified that she is not leaving the Trinamool Congress.
Earlier, Dastidar resigned as TMC president of the Barasat Parliamentary district, citing party's poor performance in the district in West Bengal Assembly Election 2026. She said that the decision was taken on moral grounds.
"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.
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.
Kakoli joins Bengal CM's administrative meet with six MLAs
Earlier on Tuesday, Kakoli, along with six other MLAs, attended West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari's administrative review meeting at Kalyani.
Apart from the Barasat MP, those attending the meeting included TMC MLAs Anisur Rahaman Biswas of Deganga, Bina Mondal of Swarupnagar, Mohammad Abdul Matin of Haroa, and three more legislators from the Basirhat region.
Kakoli Ghosh has been winning the Barasat Lok Sabha seat since 2009. In the 2024 parliamentary election, she defeated Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Swapan Majumder with a margin of over 1,14,000 votes.
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