Overview
- Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar resigned from all Trinamool Congress organisational posts on Wednesday, May 27, while saying she will remain a party MP and ordinary member and subsequently wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to seek permission to lodge a formal complaint against colleague Kalyan Banerjee.
- In her resignation letter Dastidar cited alleged corruption in ration distribution and teacher recruitment, raised the 2024 RG Kar medical-college case as a moral trigger, and criticised the influence and campaign role of the political consultancy I-PAC.
- A day before her resignation Dastidar and six TMC MLAs attended an administrative review meeting chaired by West Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari, an act reported as defiant and seen by rivals as a sign officials are courting dissenting TMC figures.
- Other senior figures followed with resignations or distancing moves, including former Rajya Sabha MP Santanu Sen stepping down as national spokesperson, while grassroots resignations from councillors and civic bodies have mounted and the BJP’s public claims of mass defections have been disputed by TMC leaders.
- The party has not offered a comprehensive public fix, leaving uncertainty for local cadres and creating two clear risks: internal factionalism that will complicate any rebuilding and legal limits on MPs switching sides because India’s anti-defection rules require a two-thirds crossover to avoid disqualification.