West Bengal politics is going through a particularly unusual phase—one that can even be construed as bizarre. Never has the scenario in the opposition benches in the State Assembly appeared more confusing, chaotic, or downright absurd. The split in the Trinamool Congress following its defeat in the recently concluded Assembly election has created an unprecedented dynamic in the State legislature, where the main opposition party is divided against itself, and rather than taking on the newly installed government, is too busy fighting over the claim to the very identity of the Trinamool Congress.

The most significant fallout of the ongoing developments has been Trinamool supremo and former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee losing control of the party she set up 28 years ago. Most recently she found herself removed from the chairmanship by the rebel faction that has the support of more than 60 of the 80 MLAs who won on the Trinamool ticket.

The dismantling of Trinamool has been swift and methodical. On June 3, 58 Trinamool legislators, under the leadership of expelled MLA Ritabrata Banerjee, formed a separate bloc and proclaimed themselves the main opposition party in the legislature, with Ritabrata as Leader of the Opposition. The rebels maintained that they were the Trinamool party, and offered Mamata the post of chief adviser.

Just five days later, 20 of the 28 Lok Sabha MPs of Trinamool broke away from the party’s parliamentary group and pledged support to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). They subsequently merged with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), a registered but unrecognised party. Around the same time, three Rajya Sabha MPs also quit both Trinamool and the Upper House.

The final blow came on June 22, when the rebel Trinamool bloc in the State legislature announced a new National Working Committee (NWC) of the party, in which neither Mamata nor her nephew Abhishek Banerjee, the All India general secretary of the original party, found any place. Since the inception of Trinamool Congress, all other party posts were subject to change—except Mamata’s chairmanship. As the founder of the party, it was understood that she was its chairperson for life.

The NWC set up by the rebel bloc has Trinamool old-timer and four-time MLA from Howrah Madhya, Arup Roy, as chairperson, and Ritabrata, Sandipan Saha, and Javed Khan as general secretaries. On June 23, the Ritabrata faction informed the Election Commission of the formation of their NWC; the same day, Mamata’s faction also sent the commission details of its own freshly constituted NWC. In Mamata’s NWC, she remains the chairperson, Abhishek continues as national general secretary, Subrata Bakshi is the vice chairman, and Rajya Sabha MPs Derek O’Brien and Dola Sen are joint secretaries.

The main contest between what has now come to be known as “Kalighat” Trinamool—a reference to Mamata Banerjee’s residence in Kolkata’s Kalighat area—and “Rebel” Trinamool is over which of the two is the “real” Trinamool. Speaking to Frontline, Ritabrata said, “Not only are the majority of the legislators with us, but also most of the other elected Trinamool members, including councillors and panchayat and zilla parishad members. By that argument, we are the Trinamool Congress. Now everything is up to the Election Commission. When there is a dispute, it is the EC who will decide.” Along with the 65 MLAs the rebel faction claims are on its side, around 70 Trinamool councillors were also present at the meeting in which “Rebel” Trinamool announced their NWC.

The Mamata loyalists of “Kalighat” Trinamool have been quick to dismiss the new developments. Lok Sabha MP from Krishnanagar, Mahua Moitra, said, “The Trinamool constitution states that Mamata Banerjee is the chairperson for life. The symbol is still with Mamata Banerjee… it is this symbol that won 80 legislators, 28 MPs, and 136 corporators. That Arup Roy from Howrah is saying that he is the chairperson instead of Mamata Banerjee. Will any dedicated Trinamool worker from Kakdip to Cooch Behar ever accept that Howrah’s Arup Roy is the chairperson of Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool? All those who have gone to the rebel side, have done so to save themselves. Form your own party and symbol. What is the problem? If you dislike Mamata Banerjee so much, then why are you retaining that party symbol?”

Trinamool Congress today is split three ways: there is the rebel bloc that claims to be the true representative of Trinamool; the 20 Lok Sabha MPs who have merged with the NCPI; and the suddenly marginalised original party with Mamata Banerjee at the helm. The formidable Mamata Banerjee, who ruled the State practically unchallenged for 15 years and on that strength wielded substantial clout in national politics, is suddenly struggling to survive politically.

A loyalist exodus

What has been most damaging to Mamata’s faction is that many of her closest and most trusted aides have joined the rebel factions in both the legislature and Parliament. Firhad Hakim and Aroop Biswas, powerful Ministers in her Cabinet, have switched to the Ritabrata faction. After the swearing-in of the new government on May 9, Mamata had nominated Firhad Hakim as the Chief Whip of the party; and when she reconstituted her National Working Committee on June 5, she made Aroop Biswas one of the State general secretaries, and former Cabinet Ministers Jyotipriyo Mallick and Gautam Deb as executive members. Firhad and Aroop now hold posts in the rebel NWC, while Jyotipriyo has quit Trinamool and Gautam has stepped down from all party posts.

In a bid to hold the party together, Mamata made an impassioned plea to around 300 Trinamool workers from north Kolkata on June 25, saying, “Some people have betrayed me in order to save themselves or to save their families. Mother has brought you up; and today when mother is sick, will you not look after her? …I request those with good sense to come back. Those who think they can continue this way, they will end up being neither here nor there.”

According to the psephologist Biswanath Chakraborty, the corruption and misrule associated with Mamata Banerjee’s government is the main reason for the party’s break-up. “Nobody wants to associate himself with the taint and corruption of Trinamool’s rule. In order to salvage whatever remains of their own political career, they want to maintain as much distance as possible from both Mamata and Abhishek,” said Chakraborty.

For the once seemingly invincible Mamata Banerjee, it has been one setback after another since she lost power; and the source of most of her troubles has been those she trusted the most. On June 12, the once-loyal Aroop Biswas, the former treasurer of the party, wrote to a bank requesting it to immediately restrict transactions in the accounts held by Trinamool in order to “safeguard the funds of the organisation".

Subsequently, following a complaint by rebel Trinamool members, the police ordered the bank to freeze withdrawals from three accounts belonging to the party. This has come as a serious blow to Mamata’s faction as it struggles to regroup—the three accounts together apparently contained around Rs.440 crore. “With the freezing of the accounts, it will be more difficult for Mamata to reorganise. Without the funds, it will be difficult to continue to pay for the support system of the party, like its social media team and its full-time employees. This is a big blow,” said Chakraborty.

The BJP’s shadow

The BJP made no secret of its part in the split of Trinamool’s parliamentary party. The rebel MPs met at the residence of Union minister Bhupender Yadav; the meeting was also attended by West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari; and the rebel bloc expressed their intention to be part of the BJP-led NDA. Though in Bengal nothing directly points to the BJP having a hand in the rebellion in the legislature, many political observers see the saffron party’s hand behind the rapid disintegration of Trinamool. The split was sparked when Ritabrata and Sandipan Saha wrote to the Speaker alleging that some of the signatures on a document submitted to the Assembly—endorsing Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as Leader of the Opposition—had been forged.

Many political commentators feel that if the BJP is indeed trying to destroy Trinamool, it is doing so with an eye on the 2029 Lok Sabha election. The veteran political analyst Biswajit Bhattacharya pointed out that the 2024 election result continues to haunt the BJP and hinder its longer-term agenda.

“Right now the BJP wants the Delimitation Bill to pass before the 2029 general elections. They realise that there will be numerous factors and failures that will be working against them, but with delimitation the anti-incumbency and other factors can be neutralised. For the first time there was a united opposition to the Bill. As a result, they are now trying to win over MPs from different parties all over India. This is how they are weakening other opposition parties too—by luring away their MPs. This way they hope to control 361 votes to facilitate easy passage of the bills,” said Bhattacharya.

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