Senior Trinamool Congress leader and four-term MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and a few MLAs of the Trinamool Congress on Tuesday participated in a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari in North 24 Parganas.

After being sworn in the first Bhartaiya Janata Party (BJP) Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mr. Adhikari has been holding administrative meetings in several districts and he has said that MPs and MLAs from the Opposition parties can join the meeting, a departure from the tradition in the Trinamool Congress regime.

The presence of Ms. Ghosh Dastidar, a four-time Trinamool Congress MP from Barasat Lok Sabha seat evoked strong reactions from political circles as recently the MP had stepped down from her position as the Trinamool’s organizational district president for Barasat. Recently, Ms. Ghosh Dastidar was replaced by Kalyan Banerjee as the Chief Whip of the party in Lok Sabha. “Administration is for everyone,” the Trinamool leader said, when asked about the reasons for her presence at the meeting.

Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari welcomed the development and said in the previous regime even officer-in- charge of local police station would not take calls of MPs of Opposition parties.

“ This culture needed to change. Today a number of MLAs from Basirhat joined. We gave opportunity for an MLA to speak. We want work together for development. Except in the times of elections there should not be political bickering,” the Chief Minister said.

The meeting saw newly elected Trinamool MLA from Deganga Anisur Rahman Bidesh, Baduria MLA Burhan-ul- Mukaddin (Liton), Swarupnagar MLA Bina Mandal, Basirhat South MLA Surjit Mitra (Badal), Minakha’s Usharani Mandal and Haroa MLA Abdul Matin. Most of the Trinamool Congress MLAs said that they participated in the meeting since the state government invited them and there was no word from the party against participating in the meeting.

Later in the day when Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari went to meet Speaker of West Bengal Legislative Assembly Rathindranath Bose, two Trinamool Congress MLA Ritabarata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha were seen inside the Speaker’s room.

Prior to this Trinamool MLA Ritabarata Banerjee had a chance encounter with the Chief Minister at Banga Bhawan during his visit to Delhi. Trinamool lawmakers making a beeline to meet Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari is not only aimed at exchanging courtesy but represents a discontent within Trinamool Congress after the party suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of BJP in the assembly polls.

Another Trinamool Congress MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy increased the discomfort of the Trinamool Congress with a cryptic post referring to Roman Emperor Julius Ceasar’s assassination.

“On 44 BC, the Roman Emperor Julius Ceaser was stabbed to death in the Senate on the Ides of March. As per Roman calendar, Ides generally meant for 15th of March, May, July and October. But before Ides of May, people of West Bengal put an end to unbearable anarchical situation,” Mr Roy said.

The Trinamool MP had earlier hit a dissenting note during protests over rape and murder of a doctor at R G Kar Hospital in August 2024, but later mend his relationship with the party leadership.