Signalling dramatic split in Trinamool Congress, 58 rebel MLAs break away

Media personnel gather outside the West Bengal Legislative Assembly after 58 dissident TMC MLAs led by expelled legislator Ritabrata Banerjee meets Speaker Rathindra Bose, unseen, in Kolkata, West Bengal, on Wednesday

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Swapan Mahapatra

In a major jolt to the Trinamool Congress founder and supremo Mamata Banerjee, Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha, two expelled TMC MLAs, on Wednesday claimed support of at least 58 MLAs, over two-third of the party’s newly-elected legislators, signalling a dramatic split in the nearly three-decade old party.After a meeting with the group of rebel TMC legislators at the West Bengal Assembly, Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha met the Speaker, Rathindra Bose, and submitted a letter claiming the support of at least 58 MLAs. The letter proposes first-time MLA Ritabrata’s name for the post of Leader of the Opposition. The rebel MLAs reportedly claimed that they constitute the “real” Trinamool Congress.Earlier, several senior legislators, including Arup Roy, Shiuli Saha, Akhruzzaman, Sandipan Saha, Sabina Yeasmin, Chandranath Sinha, Javed Khan, Samar Mukherjee and Prasun Banerjee, were seen arriving at the Assembly for the meeting.Trinamool Congress, which suffered a massive defeat in the recently held Assembly elections, on June 1 expelled Ritabrata and Sandipan, minutes after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari announced that the duo had lodged a complaint alleging the forging of their signatures in a letter submitted by the TMC to the Speaker.The Mamata Banerjee-led party has faced a major internal rebellion after the massive defeat to the BJP in the polls as several party leaders questioned Mamata Banerjee’s strategies. Most of the rebel party leaders have publicly expressed their anger against Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamool’s national general secretary and Mamata Banerjee’s nephew, and questioned his leadership.Over the last few days, it became clear that the Trinamool Congress, founded on January 1, 1998, is heading for a dramatic split amid reports of rebel legislators holding several meetings in Kolkata. It became increasingly evident that the Banerjee-led party is witnessing an existential crisis after only a few MLAs joined her day-long sit-in protest on Tuesday against the ruling BJP in the State over alleged attacks on TMC leaders and workers, particularly on Abhishek Banerjee.During the sit-in protest, the Trinamool chief alleged that party legislators and councillors were continuously threatened by the police that they would get arrested if they did not resign. She lashed out at the State’s police forces for allegedly working at the behest of the BJP and helping the saffron party “break” the TMC by threatening the leaders. “Some people are betraying us to break the Trinamool Congress,” she added.Amid the major split in the party, the Trinamool Congress on Wednesday announced the dissolution of all its committees in Bengal, alongwith all frontal organisations.Notably, addressing a press conference at Nabanna, the State Secretariat, last Monday Suvendu Adhikari said Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha had submitted a written complaint to the Speaker of West Bengal Assembly that their signatures on a letter nominating Sovandeb Chattopadhyay as the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, had been forged.“I have instructed the CID to take action against this signature forgery. Those who do not cooperate will face consequences according to the law. No one will be spared,” Adhikar said.“I thank Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari for exposing the MLAs. If they had any allegations, they should have written to party chairperson Mamata Banerjee, not the Speaker,” Trinamool MLA and party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, announcing their expulsion from the party.BJP leader Tapas Roy on Tuesday said the Trinamool Congress is headed for a split. “Trinamool Congress is crumbling into pieces. The situation is like Maharashtra...,” Roy posted on his social media platform.Riding on a massive anti-incumbency wave against the erstwhile Trinamool Congress government, the BJP recorded a historic landslide victory in the Assembly elections held in April. The saffron party’s win ended 15 years of TMC rule and marked a watershed moment for the party as it dismantled Mamata Banerjee’s bastion through an all-guns blazing election campaign. The party won 208 seats, reducing the Trinamool to just 80 in the 294-member West Bengal Assembly.Published on June 3, 2026