The All India Trinamool Congress (TMC), the party that ended 34 years of uninterrupted Left Front rule in West Bengal, is confronting its deepest internal crisis since its founding 28 years ago, as a cascade of defections across both houses of Parliament and the state legislature threatens to splinter the organisation built by Mamata Banerjee. The unravelling follows the party's defeat in the West Bengal Assembly election, exposing fault lines that critics argue were long in the making.

The Scale of the Rebellion

Approximately five days after a breakaway faction comprising 58 of the TMC's 80 elected MLAs staked claim to recognition as the 'original party' in the West Bengal Assembly, 20 of its 28 Lok Sabha MPs have reportedly submitted a similar request to the office of the Lok Sabha Speaker. This comes even as one of West Bengal's 42 Lok Sabha seats — Basirhat — remains vacant following the death of the sitting TMC MP.

In the Rajya Sabha, veteran MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, 77, announced on Monday his resignation from the Upper House and from the party's primary membership. His tenure was scheduled to run until 2029. Roy had already drawn the party's displeasure after publicly supporting protesters demanding justice following the rape-murder of a trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata, in August 2024 — an incident that severely damaged the then Mamata Banerjee-led government's standing. Since the Assembly defeat, he has openly criticised the party over corruption-related issues.

Key Figures Behind the Dissent

The rebellion has two visible centres of gravity. In Kolkata, Ritabrata Banerjee, a former Communist Party of India (Marxist) parliamentarian, led the dissident MLAs out of the TMC fold. Roughly 1,300 km away in New Delhi, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, 66, a physician and former TMC MP, reportedly organised the dissenting Lok Sabha members.

Dastidar was reportedly removed unceremoniously as the party's Whip and had earlier resigned from all organisational positions. She has reportedly forwarded a list of rebel MPs to the Speaker's office, seeking recognition as a separate bloc aligned with the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA). According to sources, she believes the party's latest communication regarding her removal as Chief Whip has not yet formally reached the Speaker's office, and that she therefore continues to hold the position officially.

The Structural Weaknesses Within TMC

Mamata Banerjee, once the combative street-leader who dismantled the communist establishment in 2011, is described by critics as increasingly detached from the party's grassroots. Her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, who holds significant organisational authority, has reportedly leaned heavily on professional political consultants whose strategies, critics allege, have often failed to resonate with West Bengal's distinct political culture.

Discontent had been simmering for some time, with multiple senior leaders reportedly feeling sidelined or pressured. The current rebellion draws direct comparisons with Maharashtra, where splits in the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) resulted in breakaway factions being legally recognised as the 'real' parties — a precedent the TMC dissidents appear to be invoking.

A Pattern of Eroding Moral Authority

Analysts note that the TMC's decline mirrors the trajectory of the very Left Front it displaced. The Left fell after allegations of corruption, arrogance, and grassroots detachment — controversies around Singur and Nandigram land acquisitions proved decisive in turning public opinion. Critics argue that the TMC has followed a strikingly similar arc: from the Sandeshkhali episode and the RG Kar incident to widespread corruption allegations and a recent signature scandal, each controversy has chipped away at the party's credibility.

A comparable precedent exists at the national level: disgruntled Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MPs, reportedly led by Raghav Chadha, recently left the party and merged with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) without triggering anti-defection provisions. The final authority on TMC's recognition disputes will rest with the Election Commission of India and the respective presiding officers of the Assembly and Parliament.

With defections mounting and institutional challenges multiplying, the party founded by Mamata Banerjee faces a reckoning that will test whether it can reconstitute itself — or whether the storm has already done irreparable damage.