Ritabrata Banerjee, a politician who largely operated in the shadows except when entangled in controversy, has emerged this week as the face of a sweeping rebellion within the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal. His expulsion on 1 June, alongside fellow MLA Sandipan Saha, has triggered what insiders describe as the gravest internal crisis the party has faced in years, with reports suggesting more than two-thirds of the remaining 78 legislators are backing him as Leader of Opposition.

The CPI-M years

Banerjee's political ascent began in the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), where he rose to become the all-India General Secretary of the Students Federation of India (SFI). Party insiders remain divided on who mentored him — some credit Anil Biswas, the then State CPI-M Secretary, while others point to former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee as the architect of his rise.

The CPI-M nominated him to the Rajya Sabha in 2014, making him one of the youngest MPs from the state. His first major setback had come earlier, in 2011, when he lost the Kolkata South Lok Sabha by-election — vacated by Mamata Banerjee after she became Chief Minister — to TMC's Subrata Bakshi.

Controversies and expulsion

In April 2013, Banerjee and other SFI members were accused of harassing the then West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra during a protest at New Delhi's Planning Commission — an episode that foreshadowed deeper disciplinary trouble. The turning point arrived in 2017, when allegations of moral turpitude and a lifestyle reportedly incompatible with Communist ideology engulfed his career.

The CPI-M suspended him on 2 June 2017 for three months pending investigation, and recommended his expulsion in September 2017. Banerjee completed the rest of his Rajya Sabha term (2014-2020) as an Independent, openly attacking the party leadership in Kolkata and Delhi.

The Trinamool chapter

Banerjee joined the Trinamool Congress in 2018, beginning as Convener of a newly-formed tribal welfare committee. His brief was to identify gaps in tribal welfare schemes, particularly in the Adivasi-inhabited tea gardens of North Bengal. Unlike his combative SFI years, this phase was marked by deliberate low-profile organisational work.

In 2021, he was appointed General Secretary of the West Bengal unit of the Indian National Trinamool Trade Union Congress (INTTUC), and later elevated to state President. Despite the TMC's poor showing in the tea belt — especially in Alipurduar — during the 2021 Assembly polls, his perseverance was rewarded with a Rajya Sabha by-election nomination in December 2024, following Jawhar Sircar's resignation amid the RG Kar rape-murder scandal.

The expulsion and the rebellion

Recalled to contest this year's West Bengal Assembly election with rumours of a ministerial berth, Banerjee found himself instead at the centre of a fresh storm after the TMC's heavy defeat to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). On 1 June, the party expelled him and Saha from primary membership over allegations of “forged signatures” on a document submitted to Assembly Speaker Rathindra Bose concerning the appointment of the Leader of Opposition, two deputies, and Chief Whip.

The fallout has been seismic. With well over two-thirds of the remaining 78 MLAs reportedly backing the 46-year-old as Leader of Opposition, speculation of a ‘Shiv Sena-like split’ has gripped Bengal's political circles.

What lies ahead

Banerjee's trajectory mirrors the broader churn in West Bengal politics — from decades of Left dominance to Trinamool hegemony, and now to visible fractures inside the ruling formation as the BJP consolidates. The coming weeks will test whether this rebellion crystallises into a formal split or is absorbed back into the party machinery.