With 57 rebel MLAs having already walked out and the revolt threatening to reach Parliament, Mamata Banerjee is restructuring the Trinamool Congress around loyalist veterans — sidelining the Abhishek Banerjee faction in a desperate bid to hold the party together.
Key Highlights
57 rebel TMC MLAs led by Ritabrata Banerjee formally split the party’s legislature wing on June 4, 2026
The rebels crossed the two-thirds threshold required under the anti-defection law, winning recognition from Speaker Rathindra Bose
TMC’s strength in the West Bengal Assembly has effectively shrunk from 80 to around 20 following the split
Firhad Hakim resigned as Kolkata Mayor as part of Mamata’s sweeping reorganisation
Mamata is reinstating loyalist veterans and old-timers, sidelining the Abhishek-I-PAC faction blamed for the electoral collapse
Murmurs of a parallel revolt are growing in TMC’s parliamentary ranks
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is undertaking the most sweeping reorganisation in the party’s 28-year history, turning to loyalist old-timers to shore up a party that has just experienced its gravest internal rupture — and may not be finished unravelling.
The immediate trigger is catastrophic. On June 4, the TMC suffered the worst crisis in its history when 57 rebel MLAs split the party and elected expelled leader Ritabrata Banerjee as Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, securing recognition from Speaker Rathindra Bose and effectively wresting control of the party’s legislature wing.
The rebellion marks the first formal split within the party founded by Mamata Banerjee in 1998 and came barely weeks after the TMC’s crushing defeat in the West Bengal Assembly elections. The dissident camp crossed the two-thirds threshold required under the anti-defection law, allowing it to seek recognition as a separate legislative bloc.
From 215 to Crisis: The Collapse of TMC’s Dominance
For a politician who built her career on defiance, resilience, and an instinctive understanding of Bengal’s political pulse, the past month has been nothing short of a political earthquake. Exactly a month ago, Banerjee remained the undisputed face of the TMC, commanding a formidable legislative force. But the party’s crushing electoral defeat at the hands of the BJP dramatically altered the political landscape. The setback was made more personal by her own loss from Bhabanipur to her archrival Suvendu Adhikari, from a constituency long regarded as her political fortress. The poll results shrank the TMC’s strength in the Assembly to 80 MLAs, leaving Banerjee to lead the opposition from a position of unprecedented weakness.
The seeds of the current crisis were sown well before polling day. Around 60 of the TMC’s 80 MLAs had skipped a meeting called by party chief Mamata Banerjee, fuelling talk of growing dissent within the party after its electoral setback. Ritabrata Banerjee, widely seen as the key figure among dissident legislators, accused the party of drifting away from its original leadership, saying the party had been “hijacked by I-PAC and no longer belongs to Mamata Banerjee.”
The party has been hijacked by I-PAC and no longer belongs to Mamata Banerjee.— Ritabrata Banerjee, rebel TMC leader
Mamata’s Counter-Move: Veterans First
In response to the split, Mamata launched an emergency overhaul of the party organisation on June 5, with sources confirming that Firhad Hakim resigned as Kolkata Mayor as part of a broader restructuring in which Mamata turned to loyalists and old-timers. The move is widely read as a signal that Didi is wresting back control from the Abhishek Banerjee-I-PAC ecosystem that many insiders blame for the catastrophic 2026 poll result.
The pattern of re-empowering veterans was already visible before the split. The TMC had announced a major organisational reshuffle revamping district-level leadership across West Bengal in a calibrated effort to strike a balance between trusted old guards and emerging next-generation leaders — a reshuffle that aimed to impose greater discipline, curb factionalism, and future-proof the party.
Even during that earlier restructuring, Mamata’s preference for experienced hands was evident. In Kolkata (North), 76-year-old party MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay, the leader of the party in the Lok Sabha, was appointed as district chairperson — a move seen as Mamata Banerjee’s way of retaining experienced hands in critical urban turf.
Mamata had publicly positioned herself on the side of the veterans, saying: “We must respect seniors in the party. We need to learn from their experience. Both the old and the new are essential for the party.” She also warned that party interests must come before personal ones: “Some leaders think they are bigger than the party. They are compromising the interests of the party for the sake of their own personal interests. This must stop.”
The Old Guard vs. Young Turks Fault Line
The crisis has been years in the making. With Abhishek Banerjee emerging as the heir apparent of Mamata, the tussle between the ‘Old Guards’ versus ‘Young Turks’ within the TMC had been escalating, forcing the party supremo to relieve all leaders in the higher echelons of the organisation of their offices in early 2022.
At a massive February 2025 rally at Netaji Indoor Stadium, Mamata Banerjee made it clear she was completely in charge of the TMC and would not tolerate the inter-generational divide in the party — a euphemism for the attempts by a younger coterie that had coalesced around Abhishek Banerjee.
Political observers had long warned of the structural tension. As one senior TMC leader put it: “This reshuffle is as much about asserting control as it is about future-proofing the party. We are heading into a decisive election, and leadership wants a blend of loyalty, discipline, and performance.”
The Threat Beyond the Assembly
The rebellion is not contained. What began as a revolt by dissident MLAs under Ritabrata Banerjee has acquired a national dimension, with speculation growing that a section of party MPs in both Houses of Parliament could be preparing for a similar assertion against Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee. Veteran Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy publicly warned that the unprecedented revolt witnessed in the Assembly could find an echo in Parliament.
The path ahead is treacherous. A party that once swept Bengal with 213 seats in 2021 now fights to retain a meaningful rump in both the state legislature and Parliament. Mamata’s instinct — to fall back on those who were there before I-PAC, before the generational power struggle, before the electoral collapse — may be her only card left to play.
Whether Bengal’s old-timers can hold together a party that has already fractured once remains the defining political question of the post-2026 Bengal landscape.
Why is TMC facing a split in 2026?
Following TMC’s crushing defeat in the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections, 57 rebel MLAs led by expelled leader Ritabrata Banerjee split the party and formed a separate legislative bloc. Rebels blamed the party’s association with political consultancy I-PAC and the dominance of Abhishek Banerjee’s faction for the electoral collapse.
Who is Ritabrata Banerjee and what role did he play?
Ritabrata Banerjee is an expelled TMC leader who spearheaded the rebellion of 57 dissident MLAs. He was elected as Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly and the rebel group secured formal recognition from Speaker Rathindra Bose — marking the first formal split in TMC’s 28-year history.
What is Mamata doing to stop the TMC from breaking apart?
Mamata Banerjee launched an emergency organisational overhaul on June 5, reinstating loyalist veterans and old-timers in key positions. Firhad Hakim stepped down as Kolkata Mayor as part of the reshuffle. The overhaul is widely seen as Mamata’s bid to distance the party from the Abhishek-I-PAC faction and reassert personal control.
How many seats did TMC win in the 2026 West Bengal elections?
TMC won 80 seats in the 294-member West Bengal Assembly in 2026 — a dramatic collapse from its earlier dominance. With the rebellion of 57 MLAs, the party’s effective strength in the House has shrunk further to around 20.
Is the TMC split spreading to Parliament?
There are growing murmurs of a parallel revolt in TMC’s parliamentary ranks. Veteran Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy has publicly warned that the Assembly rebellion could find an echo in Parliament, raising the prospect of a second front opening for Mamata.
