Trinamool Congress Rebel Leader Emerges: Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar Takes Center Stage

Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, one of the founding members of the Trinamool Congress and a long-time close associate of party chief Mamata Banerjee, is now leading the group of rebel MPs from the party. Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, a four-time Lok Sabha MP from Barasat in North 24 Parganas district, has been making waves in Bengal politics. 66-year-old Kakoli has been associated with Mamata Banerjee since the 1970s. She has been considered her political ally ever since Mamata Banerjee first won elections in 1984. However, she has now become the prominent face of the group of MPs who are seen as dissident or rebel MPs of the Trinamool Congress. Kakoli, who comes from a family of doctors, has studied MBBS and received specialised training in obstetric ultrasound. Her husband Dr Sudarshan Ghosh Dastidar, a physician and a young woman doctor in the first Mamata Banerjee-led 2024 government, was also an uneasy minister within the party on several medical issues.