Trinamool Congress Internal Rebellion

18 Sept 2026

The Trinamool Congress faces its most severe internal rebellion since its founding, triggered by a historic electoral defeat in West Bengal and deepening resentment over alleged corruption and autocratic leadership under Mamata and Abhishek Banerjee. Nearly three-quarters of the party's 80 state legislators, led by Ritabrata Banerjee, have ousted Mamata as chairperson and formed a parallel legislature party, while a significant faction of Lok Sabha MPs, led by Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, seeks separate House status to align with the BJP-led NDA. This dual split in both state and parliamentary units threatens to erase the TMC's iconic symbol, force an Election Commission ruling on factional control, and fundamentally alter Bengal's political arithmetic by weakening the INDIA bloc and empowering the BJP. The crisis hinges on whether rebels can cross the two-thirds threshold required to evade anti-defection laws while claiming legitimacy as the original party, leaving the future of the 28-year-old organization and Mamata's decades-long dominance in jeopardy.