Didi sacks Kiran Kandolkar as Goa TMC State Prez due to poor performance, ex-Tivim MLA likely to quit party?

KOLKATA: In a late night development, according to online and SM reports, former Tivim MLA Kiran Kandolkar was sacked as the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC/TMC) Goa State President, as he refused to step down and resign on his own, when the unit was dissolved.

According to unconfirmed sources, Kandolkar was unofficially told to resign from the post of State President of the Goa Unit of the TMC, which he did not do.

He was later, removed from the post by the party high-command, unconfirmed sources claimed. No senior TMC leader was available for comment at the time of filing this story. We will update this post when the TMC responds to us.

The AITC central unit or National Executive Committee headed by West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee was rejigged last week and the  the entire party structure changed after the Goa poll fiasco and the infighting among senior leaders in the party, including her nephew Abhishek Banerjee.

The wings of Prashant Kishor’s Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) have been clipped by Banerjee after contradictory social media posts appeared last week with regard to the local body elections in Kolkata.

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Sources said key social media accounts, including those of Banerjee herself, the party handle (AITC twitter handle) and those of other senior leaders, which were till last week handled and managed by the I-PAC, are now handled by an internal team of the AITC. The I-PAC has been told not to post any sensitive information, without the written approval of the new team.

Last week two different lists of candidates of local body polls in Kolkata appeared online – one put out by the I-PAC on key TMC social media handles and another released by the TMC top brass at a press conference.

The I-PAC team was apparently taking orders from Abhishek Banerjee, Mamata’s nephew, while the press conference was held by party loyalists and senior spokespersons.

In a fit of anger, Mamata Banerjee dissolved the National Executive committee of the party and even sacked her own nephew. He was re-instated after a closed door meeting where Abhishek Banerjee is said to have cleared the air and promised Mamata Banerjee that such a goof-up won’t occur again.

Coming back to the Goa unit, Kiran Kandolkar who was appointed State President was told to step down from the post on his own, as the entire national unit was dissolved.

Kandolkar delayed and procrastinated in submitting his resignation and was subsequently sacked from the post on Sunday late evening sources said.

Kandolkar was unavailable for comment.