TMC tensions rise as Mamata camp counters rebel challenge.
Mamata’s team names key leaders amid growing TMC rift.
The fight for control of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) intensified on Tuesday as two rival camps raced to claim legitimacy — one led by Mamata Banerjee saying it had already finalised a new leadership team and submitted it to the Election Commission (EC), the other — a rebel group — announcing a parallel leadership and declaring Banerjee removed as party chairperson.
Sources close to Mamata Banerjee said the party’s internal structure and a 24-member National Working Committee were finalised on Saturday and formally communicated to the EC on Monday afternoon — hours before dissidents, led by Leader of Opposition Ritabrata Banerjee, convened a special session in Kolkata to unveil their own organisational lineup. The Banerjee camp insisted the EC filing, dated “as on June 20, 2026,” confirmed Mamata Banerjee as chairperson and listed its office-bearers, signaling a swift administrative move to pre-empt the rebel faction.
The roster submitted, according to party sources, names Subrata Bakshi as vice-president, Abhishek Banerjee as national general secretary, Derek O’Brien and Dola Sen as joint secretaries, and Subhasish Chakraborty as treasurer. The 24-member National Working Committee included senior figures such as Chandrima Bhattacharya (also listed as Bengal TMC president), Amit Mitra, Gautam Deb, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay (named Leader of the Bengal Assembly), Mukul Sangma, Mahua Moitra and others — a blend of veterans and newer faces that underlined Mamata’s attempt to keep the party’s traditional leadership core intact.
A senior leader from Mamata’s camp told PTI that while the rebel group was preparing its own slate, the party’s official organisational structure had already been locked in and forwarded to the EC by the chairperson’s team. That filing is being presented by her supporters as the formal, legally recognised document that should determine internal authority and who can rightfully claim control of party machinery at both state and national levels.
But the dissidents moved quickly. In Kolkata, a separate faction convened a special session and announced it had removed Mamata Banerjee as chairperson, elected senior MLA Arup Roy to replace her, and constituted a 30-member National Working Committee. The rival committee’s formation deepened the split within the TMC, turning a political quarrel into an organisational crisis that threatens the party’s stability at a pivotal moment for West Bengal politics.
The public tug-of-war exposes not just a clash of personalities but competing strategies: one camp seeking procedural legitimacy through timely EC filings, the other asserting revolutionary change through on-ground mobilisation and symbolic acts of replacement. Both sides are now fighting for recognition — from party workers, elected representatives, and the bureaucracy that administers party registrations and electoral symbols.
For ordinary party members and supporters, the scramble has been disorienting. Many long-time workers who once trusted Mamata’s leadership watch as loyalties fracture, public meetings take on a charged atmosphere, and district-level offices become contested zones. The dispute also risks diverting attention from governance and opposition work at a time when TMC is expected to consolidate its organisational strength ahead of coming political battles.
Legally, the EC will eventually have to decide which submission it recognises, a decision likely to hinge on internal party constitutions, timing of notifications, and documentary evidence. Politically, however, recognition will also depend on who can command the loyalty of the party’s elected representatives and grassroots cadres.
For now, the two lists sit as competing claims to the party’s identity and future. Whether the crisis will be settled in the corridors of the Election Commission, in party committees, or on the ground through shifting loyalties remains unclear. What is certain is that the TMC’s internal rupture has opened a fraught chapter — one that will test the party’s resilience and reshape West Bengal’s political landscape in the months ahead.