The Mamata Banerjee-Abhishek Banerjee faction within the Trinamool Congress (TMC) finds itself cornered in the Lok Sabha, with around 20 MPs supporting the rebel camp.
On Tuesday, MP Kalyan Banerjee, appointed by Mamata Banerjee as the TMC chief whip in place of Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, launched a scathing attack on the dissident faction and also targeted Dastidar for calling herself as the party chief whip.
“The chief whip is appointed by the party. It is not a parliamentary post. She resigned from all posts—how can she call herself the chief whip now?” Kalyan said, showing the party letter appointing him to the role.
"The chief whip’s role is to implement the decisions of the party within the Parliament. How can the person, who claims to be the chief whip, speak against the party?" he further asked. “What they are saying and doing is against the party. Their leader has changed. It is Narendra Modi.”
Kalyan noted that under the 10th schedule of the Constitution of India, the rebel MPs can merge with any party. "You are claiming a two-thirds majority; then why are you not merging with the BJP? The reason is simple: the BJP will not take anyone," he said.
On Monday, the rebel MPs attended a meeting at Union Minister Bhupendar Yadav’s Delhi residence, where West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari was also present. The meeting was also attended by Sukhendu Shekhar Roy, who had resigned from the Rajya Sabha and the TMC earlier in the day.
The rebel faction, which has the support of 20 of the 28 Lok Sabha MPs, says it will support the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Kalyan, however, raised doubts over the rebels' claim and asked them to show the document to the public. He also said that until Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla’s office was open on Monday, there was no information about the document.
“If you have political morality, don’t say you are Trinamool MPs. The public will understand,” Kalyan said. He also suggested that the rebel MPs go to their respective constituencies and ask the public what they feel. Kalyan, however, welcomed Roy’s decision to step down as MP and quit the party, asking other rebel MPs to follow his path.
“They have joined with the BJP to get us arrested, to harass us,” Kalyan alleged, referring to the arrest of TMC leader and former Biddhanagar Municipal Corporation chairman Sabyasachi Dutta on Monday night on charges of extortion.
Kalyan referred to the 2024 RG Kar hospital rape case and questioned where Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Sharmila Sarkar were during the protests that followed. Both had previously studied at the hospital. He also asked why no written representation of their grievances had been submitted to the party leadership despite having the opportunity to do so.
Kalyan, along with his party colleague Kirti Azad, further questioned the delay in distributing portfolios within the BJP government in West Bengal despite the cabinet announcement, suggesting that Adhikari was orchestrating the rift within the TMC to his advantage.
“Suvendu Adhikari is playing a great role. Why are ministers’ roles not been distributed? Have you heard that in India, after cabinet formation, portfolios are not distributed? There is a fight within the BJP. One lobby is for Suvendu, another is against him. He will take one part of TMC," Kalyan said.
The rift within the Trinamool Congress is now out in the open, and the discontent is palpable. Yet, the Mamata Banerjee–Abhishek Banerjee camp remains confident that it can weather the crisis and regain lost ground before the 2029 Lok Sabha elections. In Parliament, however, the party finds itself in an unusual position, with a section of its MPs backing the NDA while continuing to remain within the TMC fold.
Against this backdrop, the Mamata–Abhishek faction faces the difficult task of preserving its political relevance at both the state and national levels while simultaneously confronting the rebel camp from within and the BJP from outside.”
