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Informist, Friday, Jul. 17, 2026 

 

By Asim Khan

 

NEW DELHI – Till May 4, Mamata Banerjee, firebrand politician, founder-chairperson of the All India Trinamool Congress, and three-term chief minister of West Bengal, looked invincible. The day the assembly election results started pouring in and her party's defeat became imminent, her fortress began crumbling.

 

Now, barely two and a half months later, 65 of her 80 state legislators and 24 members of Parliament, including 20 from the Lok Sabha, have deserted her. Add to this a long list of party office-bearers, municipal councillors, former colleagues, etc., and the formidable leader, who once took on the powerful Left Front in the state, appears to be at her most vulnerable in her political journey. In fact, it appears difficult for her to save the party organisation as a breakaway faction led by legislator Ritabrata Banerjee has already staked claim to the party symbol, funds, and offices before the Election Commission of India.

 

Trusted aides and confidants are suddenly full of complaints. The main grouse is the arrogance and high-handedness of her nephew and second-in-command Abhishek Banerjee. Mamata Banerjee, however, has dismissed the complaints as mere excuses for desertion and has stood by Abhishek.

 

Only a handful of legislators and colleagues remain by her side now. For how long, nobody knows. The pressure from the Bharatiya Janata Party's "double engine" set-up in Kolkata is said to be immense, so much so that those having claimed on camera that they would "never" quit the Trinamool Congress--such as Jadavpur lawmaker Saayoni Ghosh--switched sides within days. They say everybody who has spent a few years in politics has got to have some skeletons in their cupboards. And the central agencies--especially the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department--have over the past decade mastered the skill of digging out those skeletons.

 

The latest to resign have been Rajya Sabha member Koel Mallick and Kamarhati legislator Madan Mitra. Mitra was one of Mamata Banerjee's closest aides. On Jun. 13, the Enforcement Directorate had carried out raids at seven premises linked to Mitra. The agency has also summoned his wife and two sons for questioning in the alleged municipal recruitment scam in West Bengal. Mallick was elected to the Rajya Sabha in April.

 

While the rebel faction in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly led by Ritabrata Banerjee has claimed to be the "real" Trinamool Congress, the breakaway Lok Sabha members have merged with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India, a little-known unrecognised party that was registered only in January 2023. The breakaway faction has already pledged its support to the BJP-led central government. It means the 20 Trinamool lawmakers, who were sitting on the Opposition benches till April, will now adorn the Treasury benches in July.

 

A 10-member delegation led by Ritabrata Banerjee met the Election Commission of India on Jul. 2 regarding ownership of party funds and its twin-flower symbol. This came after the faction had a special party session on Jun. 22 in Kolkata where the group "removed" Mamata Banerjee as Trinamool Congress chairperson and elected veteran legislator Arup Roy as the new party chief.

 

Amid all this, Mamata Banerjee has now called for strengthening the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, something she was not very keen on before May 4. But what does she bring to the table now? Not much, apart from her personal charisma, which still holds with a considerable chunk of the electorate in Bengal, and a handful of parliamentarians, nine in each House at last count. Mamata Banerjee, who was the one to give space to the BJP in West Bengal to counter the Left front and contain the Congress, is now finding her own political space shrinking by the day, eaten up by the same BJP.  End

 

Reported by Asim Khan

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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