Veteran Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and three other party legislators on Tuesday attended an administration meeting chaired by West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari in Kalyani in North 24 Parganas in south Bengal.
Meanwhile, in North Bengal, at least 13 TMC MLAs attended a separate administration meeting held by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA and former Union minister Nisith Pramanik.
“We have not received any invitations (to attend administrative meetings) in the last five years. But I said that on the first day (after coming to power) that we will invite all legislators of the respective districts and some selected MPs. Today the Barasat MP was invited. She attended the meeting. Some legislators from the opposition party also joined,” Adhikari said.
Tuesday’s development, coupled with a series of recent incidents in which several TMC leaders criticized the party’s top leadership, sparked speculation of a rift in the party following its defeat in the recently held Assembly elections.
“She (Dastidar) was allowed to speak. She cooperated. She shook hands. She said she had been invited to such meetings (organized by the previous TMC government) even in the past but was never allowed to speak. We want people to reap the benefits of a dual-engine government. Let the rivalry remain only during the polls. During the rest of the year, let us work in a constructive manner,” Adhikari said.
The BJP, which won 77 of the 294 seats in the Legislative Assembly in 2021, was the main opposition party that replaced the Left Front in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly. In 2026, the BJP swept the assembly elections by winning 208 seats, while the TMC won 80 seats.
“It is an administrative meeting. Management is for everyone. It is not a party meeting,” Dastidar said.
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On Sunday, Dastidar resigned from the post of Barasat district president of the party. She was removed by the TMC from the post of party’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha. After the TMC’s defeat in the assembly elections, she criticized the party and said that “corruption was a major factor” in the party’s defeat in the elections.
At the meeting, she was seen sharing the dais with Adhikari and other ministers of the newly formed BJP government.
Other TMC MLAs who attended the meeting included Anisur Rehman Bidesh from Diganga, Beena Mondal from Swarupnagar and Abdul Matin Mohammad from Harua.
“I have to work for the people who voted for me. That’s why I attended the meeting,” Mondal said.
Bedish said: “I am participating in the association for the first time. I cannot say who attended the previous meetings and who did not. I received a phone call. I have to work to develop my association. That is why I attended it.”
In North Bengal, the TMC won 14 of the 54 assembly seats. Except Sangeeta Roy Basonia, TMC MLA from Setai in Cooch Behar district, all 13 MLAs attended the meeting which was chaired by Pramanik, North Bengal’s state development minister.
TMC leaders, including party spokespersons Jai Prakash Majumdar, Kunal Ghosh and Chandrima Bhattacharya, did not respond to Hizb ut-Tahrir’s request for comment.
