Will ‘rebel’ TMC MLAs split Mamata Banerjee’s party? – Firstpost

Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) is staring at its biggest political crisis. After losing power to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the recent West Bengal Assembly elections, the TMC is struggling to keep its flock together.

Banerjee’s party could be headed for a split as signs of internal dissent come to the fore. The former Bengal chief minister has acknowledged the “rebellion” and accused the BJP of trying to break her party.

We take a deep dive.

TMC crisis: Leaders leaving in hordes, MLAs suspended

The TMC is witnessing an existential crisis. Many leaders, including councillors and lawmakers, have indicated that they may ditch Banerjee’s party.

Last week, TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar stepped down from all party posts. However, she asserted that she will not quit the party and continue as an “ordinary worker”.

#WATCH | Barasat | On her resignation from the post of AITC District president of the Barasat Parliamentary district, Dr Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar says, “…Considering the outcome of the elections here, there might be some lapse in the way I worked for the party, so I want someone… https://t.co/dfPht9wlm8 pic.twitter.com/rwCchCCqXu

— ANI (@ANI) May 24, 2026

Dastidar took part in an “administrative meeting” with
Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari. Six TMC MLAs from the districts of Nadia, North 24 Parganas and Hooghly were also present at the meeting, as per India Today.

Besides her, former Rajya Sabha MP Santanu Sen and senior spokesperson Arup Chakraborty have also resigned from party posts. Moreover, cricketer-turned-politician Manoj Tiwary, filmmaker and ex-MLA Raj Chakraborty, and former Assam unit president Abhijit Majumdar have quit the TMC.

As of May 26, more than 100 councillors from seven civic bodies have departed from the TMC, according to PTI.

A fracture within the party was again visible on Sunday (May 31) when 60 of the 80 newly-elected TMC MLAs skipped a meeting chaired by Mamata Banerjee at her residence. The former CM had to hold an “informal discussion” with the lawmakers who turned up for the huddle.

Defending the absence of the majority of MLAs, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh claimed that they were engaged in protest programmes after the attack on senior TMC leader and national general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee. The Diamond Harbour MP was slapped, punched and pelted with stones, shoes and eggs on camera by a mob in Sonapur while visiting the family of a victim of Bengal’s post-poll violence on Saturday.

#WATCH | Sonarpur, West Bengal: TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee was beaten up by locals during his visit to Sonarpur to meet the post-poll victims’ families pic.twitter.com/zkXxLJydqe

— ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2026

However, not many TMC leaders came out in public to condemn the attack on Banerjee’s nephew.

“Today, dissatisfaction is being expressed openly. Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar is speaking out publicly. Several celebrity MPs, such as Rachna Banerjee, June Malia and Satabdi Roy, are hardly visible. The same applies to a number of MPs, including Cooch Behar’s Jagadish Basunia, Partha Bhowmick from the Kolkata region, and Prasun Banerjee of Howrah, the former captain of the Indian football team,” senior journalist Prasun Acharya told The Lallantop.

Acharya further said there were reports that former cricketer Yusuf Pathan is likely to resign as the TMC MP from Baharampur.

Will TMC go the Shiv Sena, NCP way?

There is a rift brewing within the TMC over the choice of the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the West Bengal Assembly. Banerjee’s party picked Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as the LoP. However, TMC MLAs Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha questioned the authenticity of signatures on the letter endorsing the octogenarian MLA for the post.

Their allegations have led to the launch of a formal investigation by the West Bengal Crime Investigation Department (CID) into “Signgate”.

The TMC later suspended Saha and Ritabrata Banerjee, accusing them of anti-party activities. The controversy has further fuelled speculations about factionalism and dissatisfaction within TMC’s ranks.

As per NDTV sources, at least 50 TMC MLAs are in touch with these two expelled lawmakers. They met 46-year-old Ritabrata Banerjee at a hotel near EM bypass in Kolkata recently.

A section of TMC MLAs is in favour of supporting Ritabrata Banerjee for the LoP post in the West Bengal Assembly, according to the sources. The disgruntlement of TMC leaders has surfaced since the party lost the Bengal polls earlier in May after staying in power for 15 years.

The ire of many TMC leaders after the poll drubbing is said to be directed at Abhishek Banerjee and not his aunt, Mamata Banerjee. Several party leaders have hit out at the Diamond Harbour MP for hiring political consultancy outfit I-PAC for the Assembly elections.

Senior leaders such as Dastidar and Kalyan Banerjee have publicly accused I-PAC of “arrogance” and possessing no understanding of ground-level electoral politics.

Blaming the outfit for the party’s electoral defeat, some leaders claim I-PAC alienated the workers and mid-level leadership from the TMC high command, reported India Today.

While there are rumours that some “rebel” TMC lawmakers could jump ship to join
the BJP, there is uncertainty about whether the saffron party would open its door for the turncoats.

Another possibility that is being discussed is Bengal experiencing Maharashtra-style politics. In recent years, Eknath Shinde rebelled against Uddhav Thackeray, splitting the Shiv Sena into two factions.

Ajit Pawar, along with several other MLAs, broke away from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by his uncle, Sharad Pawar. In both cases, the group led by these “rebel” leaders was recognised as the “real” Shiv Sena or NCP.

There are now talks about whether a similar formula would be replicated in Banerjee’s TMC. However, for any such rebellion to succeed, a leader would need substantial support among TMC legislators and organisational leaders. As per News18, so far, there is no public evidence that a majority of TMC MLAs are ready to split the party.

What is Mamata doing to placate ‘rebels’?

Mamata Banerjee has slammed the BJP for attempting to “break” her party. The TMC supremo has claimed that there is an “organised attempt” to weaken and destroy her party.

In her Facebook Live address on Monday, Banerjee admitted to the rebellion within the TMC, alleging that some leaders were more keen on protecting their interests.

“TMC MLAs are being threatened through police pressure and instructed to establish contact with specific individuals,” she alleged.

Banerjee also accused the Bengal administration of not allowing the TMC to hold public rallies. “The more you try to break the TMC, the more it will emerge stronger,” she said. “The TMC isn’t a leader-based but a worker-based party. Leaders get scared, workers don’t. I will rebuild the party as long as Trinamool workers are with me,” the former Bengal CM declared.

Sources told NDTV that hectic parleys are underway in Kolkata to bring the unhappy TMC MLAs on board and to keep the party intact in the Assembly.

Banerjee’s aide and senior TMC leader, Kunal Ghosh, has issued an appeal to the party lawmakers.

“I would request our MLAs with folded hands. We have not come here by winning elections on our own. We have come here because of the Trinamool Congress. Mamata Banerjee’s picture was being used, and we have come by receiving the votes that Mamata Banerjee earned. If we had that strength ourselves, we would have won the elections on our own,” Ghosh said, according to Sangbad Pratidin, a Kolkata-based Bangla news outlet.

Mamata Banerjee is arguably facing her toughest political battle yet. Will she succeed? Well, we will have to wait and watch.

With inputs from agencies