Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Kalyan Banerjee
NEW DELHI: Former Trinamool Congress MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar on Thursday lodged a formal complaint with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla against party MP and current chief whip Kalyan Banerjee, alleging that he had ‘repeatedly verbally abused’ her inside Parliament.”I seek your permission to lodge a formal complain to you for redressal against Lok Sabha Member of AITC Kalyan Banerjee, who has repeatedly verbally abused me inside the Lok Sabha. This misogyny has been against many lady members and needs to be punished,” Dastidar wrote in her letter to the Speaker. The complaint comes amid growing tensions within the Trinamool Congress following Dastidar’s recent resignations from key organisational posts and her public criticism of sections of the party leadership after the party’s poor performance in the 2026 assembly elections. On Wednesday, the four-time Barasat MP resigned from all organisational responsibilities in the TMC, a day after attending former chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s administrative review meeting in Kalyani despite alleged instructions from the party asking her not to participate.Dastidar, who earlier served as the national president of the TMC women’s wing and was associated with the party’s ‘Banga Janani’ programme, informed state party president Subrata Bakshi that she would no longer continue in organisational roles. The party has not yet officially commented on her latest move.She stepped down as president of the party’s Barasat organisational district unit, taking ‘moral responsibility’ for the TMC’s defeat in Barasat. The resignation was accepted by the party, which subsequently appointed Tapas Chatterjee as the new district chief.Dastidar had also publicly attacked political consultancy firm I-PAC, accusing it of pressuring party leaders and workers and contributing to the party’s electoral decline.”The way this organisation has worked and abused us, the way they put pressure on us, this is not the way to work. Wherever they go, I think they will produce dangerous results in the elections,” she had said.A veteran TMC leader long considered close to Mamata Banerjee, Dastidar was removed as the party’s chief whip in Lok Sabha following the Assembly election setback and replaced by Kalyan Banerjee.She had further alleged growing ‘criminalisation’ within the party and urged the leadership to once again rely on ‘honest, experienced and dedicated’ workers to rebuild the TMC’s image after the electoral setback.
