TMC Crisis: Mamata Banerjee’s Party Implodes — What Lies Ahead?
Former West Bengal CM mamata Banerjee with CWC chairperson Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi. (Image TMC on X)
By AMIT KUMAR
Unless Mamata can reinvent her political narrative, the TMC crisis of 2026 may well mark the beginning of the end of an era in Bengali politics.
Kolkata, June 10, 2026 — The Trinamool Congress (TMC), once the unassailable political fortress of West Bengal, is unravelling at an alarming pace. What began as post-election heartburn after the party’s stunning defeat in the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections has snowballed into the most devastating internal crisis in the party’s nearly three-decade history — threatening to reduce Mamata Banerjee from a national power broker to a regional also-ran.
The scale of the rebellion is staggering. As many as 19 of TMC’s 28 Lok Sabha MPs — led by veteran physician-politician and former Chief Whip Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar — have written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla declaring their intent to align with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Crucially, 19 MPs exceeds the two-thirds threshold needed to circumvent the anti-defection law, giving the rebel bloc legal cover. The group has also sought separate seating arrangements in Parliament, effectively suggesting a formal split from Mamata’s parliamentary party.
The rebellion has not been limited to the Lok Sabha. Senior Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy resigned from the upper house, signalling that the revolt has spread to every tier of the party. Another TMC MP Sushmita Dev has quit her Rajya Sabha membership. She met Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, youth icon and Jadavpur MP Saayoni Ghosh — once president of the TMC’s youth wing — also announced her departure, citing complete abandonment by the party leadership when she faced public backlash during the campaign. At the assembly level, 58 of the TMC’s 80 MLAs defied the party high command’s directive on the appointment of Leader of Opposition, exposing deep fault lines even among legislators who survived the poll rout.
The roots of the crisis run deep. The 2026 assembly defeat was not merely an electoral setback — it punctured the myth of Mamata’s invincibility. Years of governance scandals, including the teacher recruitment scam that cost 25,000 jobs, the RG Kar rape-murder case, and a litany of corruption allegations in coal, cattle, and ration distribution, eroded the party’s core support base. Anti-incumbency had been building for years; the 2026 verdict simply broke the dam.
What lies ahead for Mamata Banerjee? The picture is bleak. With Suvendu Adhikari now Chief Minister of West Bengal and her parliamentary strength shredded, Mamata faces the prospect of becoming a marginalised figure in national politics. Her nephew and party General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee retains some organisational grip, but rebuilding a fractured party from the opposition benches in both Nabanna and New Delhi will test even her legendary political resilience.
The immediate battle will be legal — TMC has approached the courts to challenge the rebellion — but the larger war is existential. Unless Mamata can reinvent her political narrative, the TMC crisis of 2026 may well mark the beginning of the end of an era in Bengali politics.
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