Veteran Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and three other party legislators on Tuesday attended an administrative meeting chaired by West Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari at Kalyani in North 24 Parganas in south Bengal.
Meanwhile in north Bengal, at least 13 TMC MLAs attended a separate administrative meeting held by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA and former Union minister Nisith Pramanik.
“We never got any calls (to attend administrative meetings) in the last five years. But I said it on the first day (after coming to power) that we would invite all legislators of the areas concerned and some selected MPs. Today the MP of Barasat was invited. She attended the meeting. Some legislators of the opposition party (TMC) also joined,” Adhikari said.
Tuesday’s development along with a series of recent incidents in which many TMC leaders have criticised party’s top leadership triggered speculations of a rift in the party after its defeat in the recently held assembly polls.
“She (Dastidar) was allowed to speak. She cooperated. Shook hands. She said that she had been invited to such meetings (organised by the previous TMC-government) even in the past but was never allowed to speak. We want the people to reap the benefits of the double-engine government. Let rivalry stay only during the polls. During rest of the year lets work in a constructive manner,” Adhikari said.
The BJP which had won 77 out of the 294 assembly seats in the 2021 assembly elections was the main opposition party relacing the Left Front in West Bengal legislative assembly. In 2026, the BJP swept the assembly polls winning 208 seats, while TMC won 80 seats.
“It’s an administrative meeting. The administration is for everyone. It is not a party-meeting,” Dastidar said.
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Dastidar on Sunday resigned as the party’s Barasat district president. She was removed by the TMC as the party’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha. After the TMC’s defeat in the assembly polls she criticised the party and said that “corruption was a key factor” for the party’s poll defeat.
In the meeting she was seen sharing the dais with Adhikari and other cabinet ministers of the newly formed BJP government.
Other TMC MLAs who attended the meeting include Anisur Rahaman Bidesh from Deganga, Bina Mondal from Swarupnagar and Abdul Matin Muhammad from Haroa
“I have to work for the people who voted for me. That’s why I attended the meeting,” Mondal said.
“I am a first time MLA. I can’t say who attended the previous meetings and who didn’t. I got a call. I have to work for the development of my assembly. That’s why I attended it,” Bidesh said.
In north Bengal the TMC won 14 out of the 54 assembly seats. Except for Sangita Roy Basunia, TMC MLA from Sitai in Cooch Behar district, all 13 MLAs attended the meeting chaired by Pramanik, the state north Bengal development minister.
TMC leaders including party spokespersons Jay Prakash Majumdar, Kunal Ghosh, and Chandrima Bhattacharya, did not respond to HT’s request for comments.
