Storm brewing in TMC? Mamata's longtime aide Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar quits party post

"The party [Trinamool Congress] will collapse within 24 hours. It is a corruption-driven family party with no real ideology." This was what West Bengal's new Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari had to say on May 4. That day, the BJP swept to a landslide victory in the West Bengal Assembly elections, winning 208 of the 293 seats that had gone to polls then, banishing the once mighty TMC to the opposition. Adhikari predicted that the Trinamool Congress (TMC) would disintegrate soon. Three weeks later, the TMC is still there, but at the verge of imploding.

There is a severe crisis in the TMC as more and more senior leaders are breaking ranks, trading blame over the debacle, and openly questioning the party's top-down management. Party leaders like Kalyan Banerjee and Riju Datta had previously blamed I-PAC, the political consultancy agency, for the TMC's defeat, as well as alleging that Mamata Banerjee and her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, had steadily prioritised I-PAC's inputs over those from the party's grassroots cadres.

Joining their ranks now is Barasat Lok Sabha MP, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, who resigned from the post of President of the Barasat Parliamentary District, before squarely laying the blame for the TMC's electoral washout on I-PAC, as well as the party's governance (or lack thereof).

Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar isn't any other TMC leader. She has been among the TMC's old guard, having stood alongside Mamata when she founded the TMC in 1998. Her resignation and subsequent castigation of her own party is the clearest sign of the storm brewing within the TMC in the aftermath of its Assembly election debacle.

WHY DID GHOSH DASTIDAR RESIGN HER TRINAMOOL POST?

The spark that triggered Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar's resignation from the post of Trinamool's President of the Barasat Parliamentary District came on May 14. That day, Mamata Banerjee appointed Serampore MP Kalyan Banerjee TMC's Chief Whip in the Lok Sabha, replacing Ghosh Dastidar.

In a pointed response, Ghosh Dastidar later posted on Facebook, "Acquainted since '76, the journey began in '84. Today, I have been rewarded for four decades of loyalty."

Days later, on Sunday, May 24, she officially announced her resignation from the party post via a letter to state TMC President Subrata Bakshi, taking "moral responsibility" for the party's poor performance in her Barasat constituency.

In her letter, she also blamed the TMC's governance for the party's loss, writing that, "Some alarming incidents of crime and corruption in West Bengal in recent times have naturally raised questions and apprehensions in the minds of the ordinary people. To make democracy stronger, it is necessary to give greater importance to transparency, accountability, commitment, courtesy, responsibility towards the people, and values in politics."

She finished the letter with an appeal to Mamata, writing that, "My appeal to leader Mamata Banerjee is that if work is done by involving honest, dedicated, and old workers as in the past, the image of the party will brighten. I do not think tough work can be accomplished by upstart/mushrooming organizations," a clear reference to the party's reliance on I-PAC at the expense of party leaders.

WILL KAKOLI GHOSH DASTIDAR STEP DOWN AS TMC LOK SABHA MP?

However, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar’s son, Baidyanath Ghosh Dastidar, pointed to much deeper issues within the party.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Baidyanath, who is not associated with the TMC, disclosed that his mother had also resigned as the president of the TMC’s women’s wing, adding that she might step down as an MP next.

He also admitted that the corruption scandals plaguing the Mamata Banerjee government had taken a severe toll on their family's reputation. "Out of the seven Assembly seats in Barasat parliamentary constituency, the TMC lost six. So, taking responsibility and standing against the corruption that has been there for the last five to 10 years, my mother has taken a stand," he said.

When asked how his mother could break away given her deep, family-like ties with Mamata Banerjee, he noted that personal loyalty could no longer mask structural issues within the party.

"She [Kakoli] is still close to Mamata Banerjee, but for how long can someone put up with these things? Under Partha Chatterjee, jobs were sold, and many were left unemployed. Jyotipriya Mullick was arrested in the ration scam. We all saw the RG Kar incident. We also had to bear the brunt. We are an educated and respectable family. For how long can you put up with a government with so many corruption charges? The fingers are also pointed at us. Because of a personal relationship, my mother has been quiet all this time," he revealed.

When questioned on whether his mother was planning to cross over to the BJP, Baidyanath dismissed the political speculation, framing her decision as a purely ethical one. "It is not about joining the BJP. My mother is taking a stand that she cannot be a part of corruption. She had to take a stand against corruption," he told The Indian Express.

Baidyanath's revelations would later prompt TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee (who was appointed Chief Whip at Ghosh Dastidar's place) to tweet on Monday, "Perhaps now, at long last, all the stains and controversies surrounding you will finally be washed away and neatly erased".

WHY DID KAKOLI GHOSH DASTIDAR BLAME I-PAC FOR TMC's DEFEAT?

While it is not yet clear if Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar will entirely sever her deep, decades-long ties with either the TMC or Mamata Banerjee, she nevertheless made her immense displeasure with the political consultancy firm, I-PAC, clear.

Ghosh Dastidar, of course, is not the first to lash out. In a scathing interview with Anandbazar Online following the elections, a reinstated Kalyan Banerjee alleged that I-PAC had completely destroyed the TMC organisation, adding that Abhishek Banerjee’s "full dependency" on the corporate agency was rejected by the people.

Similarly, speaking to news agency ANI, suspended TMC spokesperson Riju Dutta had claimed that I-PAC had effectively "captured" the party in the months leading up to the election, running it through outsiders while alleging that the agency had practically sidelined traditional grassroots cadres.

Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar is now joining their ranks. Addressing a press conference on Sunday in Madhyamgram after her resignation, Ghosh Dastidar tore into I-PAC.

"If there is anyone at the root of the destruction, then it is that organisation [I-PAC]. It has completely destroyed everything I did not appoint them. Only those who appointed it can talk about it. But those little children harassed us, harassed our workers I have been in politics for the past 40 to 45 years. Now, a young girl of 22 to 23 years from the consultant firm, which finished the party, would come and threaten me. Would dictate what to do and how to do," Ghosh Dastidar was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

Elaborating further on the agency's operational failure in a subsequent interview with India Today TV, the veteran MP argued that corporate consultants had completely alienated the party's backbone.

"The I-PAC people have no clue about electoral politics. The young people who came in might be highly educated, they might have knowledge from books, but the people who work on the ground, the workers, were maligned. The workers were left idle. The workers were not included in the day-to-day election process. And those I-PAC people who were working took all kinds of wrong decisions. At every step, they failed in their job," Ghosh Dastidar told India Today TV.

DID TRINAMOOL LEADERSHIP IGNORED EARLY WARNING SIGNS?

Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar also said that the Trinamool leadership ignored early warning signs of the impending disaster.

"By the time we realised they were doing everything wrong, we were already deep into the elections, with only a few days or maybe a month left. But as soon as I realised, maybe six months ago, that their high-handed attitude, ill behaviour and everything else were wrong, that they should not be trusted, and that we should go back to our old method of campaigning, I said so," she said.

"I realised that quite some time back. But naturally, the decision is not mine. I didn't employ them. I wasn't their boss. So I cannot say why they were allowed to create this mayhem."

Despite her decades of electoral experience, Ghosh Dastidar told India Today TV that her feedback ultimately fell on deaf ears within the top hierarchy.

"I have told them also — these young people, 20 to 24 years old. I said, 'Why don't you listen to me?' Because I have fought at least 10 elections in my life. The first five elections I lost. Then I worked for Mamata Banerjee in her 2004 election, not contesting myself. We went door to door. And then again I contested and won four times. So that makes it 10 elections, Lok Sabha and Assembly put together. There is an electoral process, and they didn't listen. I have conveyed my thoughts. I kept telling them also [Abhishek Banerjee and Mamata Banerjee], but actually people were maybe so busy that they didn't listen."

She also told news agency ANI on Monday, "They [I-PAC] had absolutely no manner of working; they spoke very rudely. These workers of ours, they aren't servants. We don't pay them a salary; they work out of love for Mamata Di and love for the party. 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."

Ultimately, Ghosh Dastidar's explosive public fallout highlights a much larger, systemic rot within the party, showing that while the TMC survived Suvendu Adhikari's 24-hour expiration date, a storm was brewing within it. The internal friction between TMC's foundational grassroots and its corporate-driven leadership risks pulling the party apart from the inside.