The deepening rift within the Cooch Behar TMC came to the fore once again after civic chairman and veteran party leader Rabindranath Ghosh skipped an official event in the town on Friday.
The event, held to lay the foundation of several development projects worth ₹6 crore under the North Bengal Development Department (NBDD), was led by state minister and Dinhata TMC MLA Udayan Guha.
Ghosh’s absence, along with the no-show by several TMC councillors, reignited talk of an ongoing factional battle within the district unit of the ruling TMC less than a year of the crucial 2026 Assembly elections.
Rabindranath Ghosh File picture
According to insiders, the district TMC is divided between two camps: one led by district president Abhijit De Bhowmik, minister Udayan Guha, and MP Jagadish Chandra Verma Basunia; and the other by Rabindranath Ghosh, former MP Partha Pratim Roy, and senior leaders Khokon Mia and Parimal Barman.
“I was not invited to the programme,” Ghosh told reporters when asked why he stayed away.
Guha, however, contradicted Ghosh when asked why the latter did not turn up. He said: “The chairman of the municipality was invited by our department.”
The projects announced include improvements to roads and drainage systems in Cooch Behar town. “Once completed, these works will resolve the town’s long-standing drainage issues to a significant extent,” Guha said at the function held at the Das Brothers More on Friday evening.
The Cooch Behar civic body has 20 wards, of which 18 are held by the TMC. Yet only 12 councillors attended the programme. Sources within the party say the split is now clearly visible.
The tension was also apparent on Saturday when a preparatory meeting was held at Rabindra Bhawan for the party’s July 21 mega rally in Calcutta. Ghosh and his close associates were conspicuously absent.
This time, Ghosh acknowledged he had been informed about the meeting but cited a prior engagement. “I had already accepted an invitation to a cultural programme at Pundibari, so I couldn’t attend the party meeting,” he said.
