Veteran Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and three other party legislators attended an administrative meeting chaired by West Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari at Kalyani in Nadia district in south Bengal.
Meanwhile in north Bengal, at least 13 TMC MLAs attended a separate administrative meeting held by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA and former Union minister Nisith Pramanik.
Adhikari said that the TMC never invited legislators to attend administrative meetings during their five-year tenure, but now they are extending invitations to all legislators and some selected MPs.
The development has triggered speculations of a rift in the TMC party after its defeat in the recently held assembly polls.
One of the TMC MLAs who attended the meeting said that she had been invited to such meetings in the past but was never allowed to speak, and that she cooperated and shook hands with Adhikari.
The BJP won 208 seats in the assembly polls, while the TMC won 80 seats.
TMC leaders including party spokespersons Jay Prakash Majumdar, Kunal Ghosh, and Chandrima Bhattacharya, did not respond to HT’s request for comments.
