TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar resigns as party’s Barasat District President, says I-PAC created havoc in the party and corruption damaged the party’s image

In a significant development within the Trinamool Congress (TMC) amid ongoing introspection following the party’s poor performance in the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections, Barasat MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar has resigned from her post as the party’s Organisational District President for Barasat.⁠

Ghosh Dastidar, a veteran TMC leader and long-time loyalist, submitted her resignation through a formal letter to the party’s state president, Subrata Bakshi. This move comes just days after she was removed from her position as the Lok Sabha Chief Whip of the TMC and replaced by Kalyan Banerjee.

In the letter addressed to party president Subrata Bakshi, she stated that incidents of crime and corruption in the state have created questions and apprehensions in the minds of the common people. She wrote, ‘To further strengthen our democracy, it is essential to accord greater importance to transparency, accountability, responsibility, propriety, a sense of duty towards the public, and ethical values ​​within the realm of politics.’

Ghosh Dastidar accepted moral responsibility for the party’s underwhelming performance in the Barasat region, where the TMC could secure only a limited number of seats despite its traditional strength in the area. She appealed party chief Mamata Banerjee to rely on veteran party workers, not ‘fly-by-night organisations’.

She wrote, ‘I appeal to our Leader, Mamata Banerjee: I believe that the party’s image would be significantly enhanced if, as in the past, you were to work alongside honest, dedicated, and veteran party workers. I do not believe that the arduous task of effective governance can be accomplished through the use of fly-by-night organizations.’

Although she didn’t mention in the letter, she was referring to TMC’s political consultant I-PAC as “fly-by-night organisation.” Addressing the media while announcing her resignation, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar took strong exception to the role played by I-PAC during the assembly election campaign. She stated that the agency had “caused havoc” or “ruined” the party’s organisational structure.

She said that some workers of I-PAC, who are very young, have little experience, and have little knowledge about politics. However, such workers were given serious political work during the elections, which she didn’t agree with. She had earlier claimed that I-PAC had even threatened her before the polls.

When asked whether she was talking about I-PAC in the letter, she said yes, saying, ‘If there is anyone at the root of the destruction, then that organization. It has completely destroyed everything.’ She added, ‘I did not appoint AIPAC. Only those who appointed it can say. But those little children harassed us, harassed the workers, abused them, and the path they took was definitely not right, which is why I think this disaster is happening.’

Talking about the party, she said, “There is definitely a need to say something against the opacity, against this splendor, against institutional corruption at all levels. There is a need to take some action… There has been corruption at all levels. The middle class do not accept that corruption, the people do not accept this misconduct either. There has been an arrogance among the leaders, the workers, that people do not accept either.”

This resignation comes against the backdrop of significant internal churn taking place in the TMC following its electoral setbacks. Ghosh Dastidar, who has been associated with the party since its early days, had publicly expressed disappointment over her removal as Chief Whip on social media. She had posted: “Known since ’76, journey began in ’84. Rewarded today for four decades of loyalty.”

Written by OpIndia Staff
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