Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar quits as Barasat TMC chief over poll loss

Senior Trinamool Congress leader and Barasat MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar has resigned as president of the party's Barasat organisational district unit, taking moral responsibility for the party's poor showing in the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections, Millennium Post reports.

In her resignation letter to state TMC chief Subrata Bakshi, Dastidar indirectly criticised the party's election strategy and took a swipe at political consultancy firm I-PAC without naming it. She wrote that success would be difficult through 'mushrooming organisations' and urged the leadership to rely again on honest, experienced grassroots workers to restore the party's image.

The resignation follows TMC's major losses in North 24 Parganas district, including several Assembly seats in Barasat and Barrackpore. Dastidar, a three-time MP from Barasat and a long-time associate of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, was recently removed as chief whip in the Lok Sabha after the election debacle.