TMC's House of Cards: From Bengal to Parliament, Mamata's Empire Begins to Crack

What took the Trinamool Congress (TMC) 28 years to build, it may take only weeks to unravel. For the first time in its history, the BJP swept Bengal in the 2026 Assembly elections, winning 207 seats and reducing the TMC to a rump of 80 seats . The humiliation was barely digested before a second blow landed, from within .

In an unprecedented internal rupture , 58 rebel MLAs seized control of the TMC's legislature wing, electing Ritabrata Banerjee as Leader of the Opposition and securing formal recognition from the West Bengal Assembly Speaker. Banerjee was unambiguous: "We are the real Trinamool. We have the support of two-thirds of the MLAs." The rebel camp urged Mamata Banerjee to serve as chief adviser to the reconstituted legislature team, a gesture that rang hollow given they had just stripped her of all institutional authority in the House. Deputy leader Sandipan Saha laid the blame squarely on Abhishek Banerjee : "If you claim credit when things go well, you must also accept responsibility when things go wrong."

Now the rebellion is threatening to go national. Sources indicate that a senior MP is working to assemble 18 of the 29 TMC Lok Sabha MPs to break from the leadership and claim to be the real TMC parliamentary party, with a possible meeting with the Lok Sabha Speaker expected around June 8 to seek Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar's appointment as the party's floor leader. Dastidar, a four-term doctor-parliamentarian from Barasat , had already gone public with her frustration after being stripped of the chief whip's post, calling the 2026 result a "verdict against policy and failure of governance." Veteran Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy refused to dismiss a parliamentary echo of the Assembly revolt, while senior MP Sougata Roy , though insisting Mamata "has fought bigger battles and will bounce back," acknowledged the BJP may attempt to replicate the Assembly operation in the TMC's parliamentary wings.

The signals from outside the party are equally ominous. Senior BJP leader Saumitra Khan claimed last month that around 20 TMC MPs were already in contact with the BJP and prepared to switch sides, a charge the TMC dismissed as "bogus." More recently, Humayun Kabir , a former TMC member expelled last year, claimed that more than 20 TMC MPs want Abhishek Banerjee removed as Lok Sabha leader and have already spoken with Om Birla on the matter. Actor turned politician and TMC MP Deepak Adhikari (Dev) further fuelled speculation by calling for an end to political hostility and expressing confidence in the incoming BJP-led administration in Bengal , remarks widely read as a political signal.

The arithmetic under the anti-defection law gives the rebellion a legal road map. The TMC holds 28 MPs in the Lok Sabha and 13 in the Rajya Sabha . A group commanding two-thirds of either parliamentary party can seek protection through the so-called "Ritabrata model" , reconstituting under a separate banner while claiming to represent the legitimate party, or through a formal merger with another political formation. Both routes are now being actively discussed in political circles in Kolkata and New Delhi . The party has already deployed trusted MPs to carry out damage control and persuade colleagues not to defect. Mamata Banerjee has personally telephoned dissidents in a striking reversal for a leader whose party management until recently ran on discipline and fear rather than persuasion.

Any faction claiming to be the "real TMC" faces a further hurdle: the Election Commission would require proof of majority support not just among elected representatives but within the party organisation itself, a battlefield that remains contested.

Meanwhile, an Enforcement Directorate (ED) team arrived at Abhishek Banerjee's Kolkata residence on the very day the Assembly Speaker formally recognised the rebel faction, a coincidence that few in Bengal's political class believe was accidental.

With June 8 looming as the next potential flashpoint in Parliament, Mamata Banerjee faces a crisis unlike any in her three decades in politics.

The threat is not from the BJP. It is from the people she built.