In a fresh twist in the battle between the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the rebel bloc of "real" TMC leaders, the latter on Monday staked a fresh claim as the legitimate party, with senior MLA Arup Roy as its chairperson.
Held at a five-star hotel in New Town, the decision was taken at a special session of rebel MLAs, councillors and former elected representatives from several districts, and marks a serious blow to Mamata Banerjee's leadership of the party she founded 28 years ago.
Addressing the session, Ritabrata Banerjee—who became one of the most prominent faces of the rebellion within the party—declared that the party's organisational structure was not renewed after it expired in February 2025, three years after the last one came to power in 2022, as per a PTI report.
Calling the issue a "constitutional crisis", the rebel bloc also formally announced at the session that it had taken decisions only on the committee itself, and that there was "no discussion" on Abhishek.
The new, 30-member national working committee of the party now includes Firhad Hakim, Aroop Biswas, Rathin Ghosh and Sabina Yasmin as vice-chairpersons, while Ritabrata Banerjee, Javed Khan and Sandipan Saha were appointed general secretaries.
Roy, a veteran MLA from Howrah Central, was elected the chairperson via a voice vote, while Akhruzzaman Ansari was later announced as the treasurer, with an auditor to be appointed later to examine the faction's finances.
The report added that around 60 MLAs and a large number of councillors, including many from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation attended the special session.
A number of those who could not attend it chose to endorse it instead.
Ritabrata also said in a press conference later that the rebel faction "will inform EC and other organisations" about its decisions.
"The matter is in the court and we believe justice will be done ... TMC = Mamata Banerjee," wrote Mamata loyalist Kunal Ghosh in an X post, calling the session a "comedy show".
This marks an important turning point in the crisis within the TMC ever since it lost out to the BJP in the West Bengal Assembly elections last month.
What began as a bold move by Ritabrata Banerjee and his group of 60 MLAs to break free from the party—due to the rising influence of Abhishek Banerjee and other such concerns—also spelt trouble for the TMC in the Parliament.
Ritabrata later became the Leader of Opposition (LoP) of the "real TMC" in the Parliament—another major step in the rebel bloc staking its claim as the legitimate party.
A group of 20 MPs, led by Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Sudip Bandyopadhyay later led a 'Ritabrata model' exit from the party as well, joining the Tripura-based Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), in order to align themselves with the NDA.
All eyes are now on whether the rebel bloc's organisational makeover can withstand legal and political pressure from the Mamata camp.
