Kalyani, May 26: Breaking a rigid 15-year-old political tradition, Trinamool Congress MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and six other MLAs from her party shared the stage with Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari at a government administrative review meeting in Kalyani on Tuesday.
The high-profile attendance marks the first time in a decade and a half that opposition lawmakers have integrated into a government review. Under the previous Mamata Banerjee regime, non-TMC elected representatives were routinely excluded from state programmes. Upon taking office, Adhikari had vowed a departure from the “ruler’s law,” promising to invite all opposition MLAs and select “like-minded” MPs to state proceedings. While similar overtures in Siliguri and Durgapur were boycotted by the opposition, Tuesday’s session in Nadia cracked the ice.
The “Special” MP and Rising Defection Buzz
The spotlight focused squarely on Ghosh Dastidar, a four-term TMC MP from Barasat, whom Adhikari publicly labeled a “special MP.”
“Administration is for all. There is nothing political,” Ghosh Dastidar remarked briefly after the meeting. However,
the political undercurrents are undeniable. The veteran leader has been visibly disgruntled since the TMC’s crushing defeat in the recent Assembly elections, a resentment that peaked after her sudden removal as the party’s chief whip in Parliament. On May 15, she took to social media, bitterly writing that she was “rewarded for four decades of loyalty.” Having already resigned as the party’s Barasat district president, her presence next to Adhikari has heavily fueled speculation of a looming defection to the BJP.
When pressed on his criteria for “special” MPs, Adhikari was pointedly candid. “Those who are finally speaking the truth after a long time… those who are saying that the party has no future,” the Chief Minister retorted. He added that Ghosh Dastidar actively participated in the development discussions and shook his hand upon leaving, allegedly telling him, “I have attended many meetings before, but I was never even allowed to speak.”
A Widening Crack in the Opposition Camp
Ghosh Dastidar was not alone. Six TMC MLAs from the North 24-Parganas district—representing Deganga, Baduria, Swarupnagar, Basirhat Dakshin, Minakhan, and Haroa—also attended, defending their presence as a necessary step for regional development.
Simultaneously, a separate instance of political bonhomie unfolded at the state Assembly, where TMC MLAs Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha held a courtesy meeting with Speaker Rathindra Bose in the active presence of Chief Minister Adhikari and other BJP leaders.
While political circles are buzzing with rumors of a desperate, mass exodus from the TMC, the ruling BJP is maintaining a calculated distance for now. Addressing the speculation, BJP State President Samik Bhattacharya stated, “Currently, we have no plan to induct anyone into our party, at least for the next three months. The party will later decide who can be inducted and when.”