A rebel faction within the Trinamool Congress on Monday declared a new party chairperson and unveiled a parallel leadership structure, marking the first direct challenge to Mamata Banerjee's authority since she founded the TMC in 1998.
At a special session in Kolkata led by Leader of the Opposition Ritabrata Banerjee, the dissident camp constituted a fresh national working committee, effectively sidelining both Mamata Banerjee as founder-chairperson and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee as national general secretary, though neither was named directly during proceedings.
The stage notably featured portraits of Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam and B R Ambedkar, with no photographs of Mamata Banerjee in sight, PTI reported.
Who's In The New Line-Up
Banerjee argued the party was in a "constitutional crisis," citing a clause requiring a new national working committee every three years — a body he said had not been reconstituted since its February 2022 term expired this February.
The session first cleared a 10-member committee before expanding it to 30 members, with veteran MLA Arup Roy elected chairperson by voice vote.
Firhad Hakim, Aroop Biswas, Rathin Ghosh and Sabina Yasmin were named vice-chairpersons, while Ritabrata Banerjee, Javed Khan and Sandipan Saha became general secretaries, and Akhruzzaman Ansari was appointed treasurer.
Olive Branch, And A Claim Of Numbers
Banerjee insisted the move followed the party's own constitution and would be reported to the Election Commission, while extending an olive branch to Mamata Banerjee herself, saying she would be "most welcome" as chief advisor.
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He claimed roughly 60 of TMC's 80 MLAs and nearly 70 former Kolkata Municipal Corporation councillors had attended or backed the session.
Mamata Camp Hits Back
The Mamata Banerjee camp rejected the exercise outright. Senior leader Kunal Ghosh said the rebels had no constitutional authority to convene the session, declaring, "TMC and Mamata Banerjee are synonymous. They have no power to do this," PTI reported.
Loyalists indicated a legal challenge could follow, with several rebel leaders, including Hakim, Biswas and Roy, facing disciplinary show-cause notices.
A Party Already In Crisis
The upheaval follows a string of defections since TMC's assembly election defeat ended its 15-year rule in West Bengal, including the LoP rebellion backed by 58 MLAs and the breakaway of 20 Lok Sabha MPs who merged with the NCPI to support the BJP-led NDA.
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