Leader of the Opposition in the Bengal Assembly Ritabrata Banerjee
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With the battle for control of the Trinamool Congress gathering pace, the breakaway faction, led by Leader of the Opposition in the Bengal Assembly Ritabrata Banerjee, will meet the full bench of the Election Commission in New Delhi on Thursday to stake a claim on the party’s election symbol and bank accounts.A 10-member delegation of the Ritabrata Banerjee-led faction of the Trinamool Congress, which claims to represent the real Trinamool, will meet Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and other members of the poll panel, signalling a renewed challenge to Mamata Banerjee’s leadership.Speaking to mediapersons at Kolkata’s Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport before leaving for Delhi on Wednesday, Ritabrata said, “We had made a submission before the Election Commission and were trying to meet the Chief Election Commissioner to stake our claim. The CEC has agreed to hear us before a full bench of the Election Commission. When we sit before the bench we will present our case.”Earlier, the rebel faction, which claims support of over 70 TMC MLAs, had approached the chief electoral officer of West Bengal to submit a letter claiming recognition as the official All India Trinamool Congress and asserting its right to the party’s election symbol.The rebel TMC MLAs removed party founder and former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from the post of chairperson at a meeting held in Kolkata on June 22. Former Minister Arup Roy was unanimously picked as the new chairperson of the Trinamool Congress.The Trinamool Congress, founded by Mamata Banerjee in 1998, came to power in West Bengal in 2011, defeating the 34-year-old Left Front government. The rebellion within Trinamool began after the 2026 Assembly election, when the party lost to the BJP.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 won 208 seats, reducing the TMC to just 80 in the 294-member West Bengal Assembly.On Wednesday, Trinamool Congress MLA Kunal Ghosh, close to party supremo Mamata Banerjee, alleged that the rebel faction was “BJP-sponsored” and these legislators were attempting to protect themselves by aligning with the saffron party.“Their move is BJP-sponsored. It has been doing so in a structured way to damage TMC,” Ghosh said, reacting to the news of the breakaway faction going to meet the Election Commission on Thursday.Published on July 1, 2026
