Kolkata, Aug 4 (IANS) Party veteran and four-time Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar is the front-runner as the new chief whip of Trinamool Congress’ Parliamentary team in the Lok Sabha, which has fallen vacant on Monday following the resignation of another party veteran Kalyan Banerjee from that chair.

Banerjee announced his resignation after a virtual meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday afternoon, which was attended by all the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members of the Trinamool Congress.

A party insider said that Ghosh Dastidar had been among the senior-most and four-time Lok Sabha members of Trinamool Congress since 2009.

“At the virtual meeting, Sudip Bandopadhya was replaced by the party’s general secretary Abhishek Banerjee as the leader of Trinamool Congress’ Parliamentary party in the Lok Sabha because of Bandopadhyay’s ill-health. Another veteran Lok Sabha member, Saugata Roy, is also facing age-related ailments. Now with Kalyan Banerjee’s resignation, Ghosh Dastidar becomes the automatic choice as the new Permanent Chief whip,” said a senior leader and Lok Sabha member of Trinamool Congress, who refused to be named.

Although actress-turned-politician and party Lok Sabha member from Birbhum constituency, Satabdi Rioy, is also a four-time Lok Sabha member since 2009, she has never been considered a seasoned politician like Sudip Bandopadhya, Saugata Roy, Kalyan Banerjee, and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar.

“In a way, Ghosh Dastidar is even senior to others since she has been with Mamata Banerjee since the inception of Trinamool Congress on January 1, 1998.

Announcing his resignation as the party’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha, Banerjee told media persons that this step was prompted by his moral obligation after the Chief Minister expressed displeasure at the virtual meeting over the lack of coordination among the party MPs on the floor of the house.

Kalyan Banerjee had caught the ire of the party leadership, including the Chief Minister, over his recent face-off with his fellow party Lok Sabha member Mahua Moitra over one of Banerjee’s comments on the event of the rape of a law college student within the college premises at Kasba in south Kolkata.

Banerjee, then, even resorted to attacking Moitra at a personal level over her recent marriage with senior advocate of the Supreme Court and former Lok Sabha member from Puri constituency in Odisha, Pinaki Misra.

–IANS

src/pgh