A district Trinamul leader in Jalpaiguri associated with the party since its inception in 1998 expressed his displeasure at poll consultant Prashant Kishor and his agency I-PAC and asked if senior leaders like him “deserve to be taught political lessons by boys”.

Bubai Kar, a joint secretary of Jalpaiguri district Trinamul and a follower of party heavyweight and state transport minister Suvendu Adhikari, posted on social media his grievances over Trinamul’s decision to engage Team PK.

“1998 theke 2020, 22 bochor Trinamul korbar por IPAC namer kichu bachcha chele esey Trinamul Congress er siksha dichche. Etai ki prappo (After being in Trinamul for 22 years… since 1998 to 2020… some young boys from IPAC are coming and teaching us about Trinamul Congress… do we deserve this),” reads Kar’s post.

According to party insiders, Kar had been the working president of Trinamul Chhatra Parishad in the district from 2000 to 2005, and Jalpaiguri town block president of Trinamul Youth Congress from 2006 to 2011. In 2014, he became a state secretary of the Trinamul Youth Congress and is now a joint secretary in the district committee.Commenting on his post on social media, Kar said it was “insulting” to take political lessons from representatives of a private company.

“I am a follower of Suvendu Adhikari and feel after Mamata Banerjee, there is no one else other than him. I have seen the struggles of Mamata Banerjee but don’t know about Prashant Kishor. They run a private company…. These days, some youths instruct me on how I should do my party work and seek explanation of my political activities. This is utterly insulting,” said Kar.

In recent times, Kar is the second Trinamul leader in north Bengal who openly questioned the party’s functioning. A few days back, Mihir Goswami, a Trinamul MLA from Cooch Behar, had posted on social media: “...it is no longer Mamata Banerjee’s party.”

Kar told journalists that it looked like leaders like him were being sidelined. “Maybe the party does not need us anymore. People still have faith in our party supremo. I believe she should work together with Suvendu Adhikari to improve the situation,” Kar said.

District TMC chief K.K. Kalyani frowned on Kar’s statements and said “such remarks and posts on social media are undesirable from a person still in the party”. “Prashant Kishor has been engaged by our party supremo in the interest of Trinamul,” Kalyani asserted.