Cost of praising a BJP leader? TMC removes Kunal Ghosh as Bengal general secretary

West Bengal's Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Wednesday removed its Bengal general secretary Kunal Ghosh for "making statements which did not align with the party."

The Mamata Banerjee-led party took the measure hours after Ghosh shared the stage with BJP's Kolkata North candidate Tapas Ray, calling him a "true mass leader." Ray joined the Bhartiya Janata Party after quitting TMC in March.

"Tapas Ray is a true mass leader. His doors are always open for party workers and people. I have known him for several decades. Unfortunately, our paths are now different as Tapas-da despite our best efforts to retain him was unsuccessful," Ghosh said.

Both Ray and Ghosh exchanged pleasantries on stage with the former saying, "If you ask anybody from the TMC or any other political party, everybody will praise me. Nobody will speak ill about me. I thank Kunal for his kind words."

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Ghosh's dodgy statements

Kunal Ghosh's dismissal from party ranks was gaining momentum after the leader said in March that he wanted to relinquish all party posts as "he felt he was a misfit within the system."

He also slammed a section of TMC for being hand-in-glove with the BJP.

The party leader, however, dismissed claims that he would not join any other party.

"They are behaving as if TMC is a fiefdom of a few leaders. In North Kolkata, we have Sudip Bandopadhyay who is more of a BJP leader than a TMC MP. He is behaving like another Shajahan Sheikh. He is soft towards the BJP because of corruption cases being probed by the BJP," he said.

Removes TMC name from X bio, clarifies later

In the same month, Ghosh mysteriously removed the name of the party from his X handle.

He also posted, "Incompetent, group-centric, and selfish leaders. Will continue to deceive all year round, yet faces tough competition from Didi, Abhishek, @AITCofficial. Victory depends on the enthusiasm of party workers, not personal gain, which may not be repeated."

The leader later clarified that he will always remain a "team soldier" and will always consider Mamata Banerjee his leader.