Inside TMC Chessboard: Kakoli Ghosh To Replace Abhishek Banerjee In Lok Sabha? | Exclusive

Last Updated:June 06, 2026, 08:08 IST

As TMC battles a virtual split, sources told News18 that Team Ritabrata may now move to challenge Abhishek Banerjee’s position in the Lok Sabha.

If you thought the Trinamool Congress, which has seen a virtual split, had seen it all, then think again. The party, still coming to terms with a crushing defeat and a split down the middle led by expelled TMC MLA Ritabrata Banerjee, may be gearing up for a fresh shock as soon as next week.

Sources within the Ritabrata Banerjee-led TMC camp told News18 that efforts are afoot to dislodge TMC’s second-in-command, Abhishek Banerjee, from the post of the party’s Leader in the Lok Sabha.

Sources also indicate that TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar is likely to be Team Ritabrata’s choice for TMC’s Leader in the Lok Sabha. News18 has learnt that efforts are underway and, by Friday night, double-digit signatures in support of Dastidar’s candidature had been collected.

On June 7, which is a Sunday, sources indicate there could be a huddle of around 20 TMC Lok Sabha MPs. Speculation is rife that on Monday — the same day the INDIA bloc convenes in Delhi — a signed letter could be submitted to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, proposing Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar as the new leader of the party in the House.

If this indeed happens, with members of Team Mamata attending Mallikarjun Kharge’s meeting, the parallel optics of Team Ritabrata staking claim to a post held by Abhishek Banerjee will carry huge political significance.

Interestingly, on Thursday, Dastidar reiterated on social media that the 2026 Assembly results were a “verdict against policy and failure of governance". This is not the first time she has hit out at her own party. After resigning from the organisational post, she accepted, in an interview to CNN-News18, that corruption was partly responsible for her party’s defeat.

“Though we were feeling at the ground level that people are unhappy about state of situations. Even where a house under a scheme was given, someone or the other at the panchayat level or at the level of ward, corporations or municipalities was taking a part of that money (cut money). That was being complained by people, not me… At every level this kind of corruption has been reported. So how can we overlook it?" she said.

However, there has been more bad blood between her and the party over her abrupt removal from the post of Lok Sabha Chief Whip. She was replaced by senior MP Kalyan Banerjee following the party’s electoral debacle.

As the first shot, she resigned as the district in-charge, citing moral responsibility for the poll debacle, but trained her guns at a “fly-by-night organisation", in an apparent reference to I-PAC, while raising “recent incidents of crime and corruption".

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Anindya Banerjee

Anindya Banerjee, Associate Editor brings over fifteen years of journalistic courage to the forefront. With a keen focus on politics and policy, Anindya has garnered a wealth of experience, with deep ...Read More

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