Bengal: Mamata loyalists, rebels in dramatic tug-of-war for control

A delegation comprising three party MPs loyal to Trinamool Congress (TMC) founder and former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday, 6 July submitted a representation to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to counter the claim of the 'rebel' MLAs that they represent the party and should be allotted its symbol and allowed to control its bank accounts. Media reports indicated that the party holds over Rs 1,000 crore in its accounts, which have been frozen by West Bengal Police in the wake of the dispute. 

Briefing the media in New Delhi, TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee, flanked by fellow MPs Mahua Moitra and Sagarika Ghose, said the party had responded in detail to the rebel claims. The breakaway MLAs, he said, maintained that the party’s executive committee and the working committee had a three-year tenure which had expired in 2025, and that they had convened a special session to elect a new set of office-bearers.

Banerjee claimed that the party constitution originally provided for a three-year term for the committees, but was amended in 2006 to extend the term to five years. The changes were duly communicated to the ECI, he added. The two committees constituted in 2022, he argued, will therefore continue to function until 2027. If the rebels argued that Mamata Banerjee had ceased to be party president in 2025, he asked, how did they accept symbols signed by her in 2026 to contest the April Assembly elections?

Banerjee also claimed that once the Assembly election results were declared on 4 May, the rebel MLAs had attended two separate meetings along with others on 6 May and 19 May and signed the attendance register. It was only on 3 June that they intimated the speaker of the Assembly in writing that they constituted a ‘bloc’ within the party, had majority support, and accepted Mamata Banerjee as their leader. So, Banerjee asserted, the rebels had constantly changed their stand.

Finally, he said the rebels’ claim that they had convened a special session of the party in a city hotel was also fanciful. A special session had to be notified through the media under the rules, and every MP and MLA, both those who won and the ones who lost in the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in 2022 and 2024, had to be invited according to the party constitution. Moreover, the special session needed to have representatives not only from other state units but also the block and district levels. In short, he said, the rebels had acted against the party constitution.

The rebels, according to sources within the TMC, were also questioned by election commissioners in Delhi on 2 July and asked to justify why they were meeting in hotels and not in party offices. If they claimed to be the real party and had majority support, they should be meeting in party offices, the rebels were told.

The very next day, the rebels entered the party’s office on Kolkata's EM Bypass when former state president Chandrima Bhattacharya, a Mamata Banerjee appointee, was present. Bhattacharya, whose son had earlier joined the BJP, left the office and resigned soon after.

Taking control of the party's operational headquarters in Kolkata, it was hoped, would strengthen the rebels’ claim over the party's name, election symbol, bank accounts and organisation. According to an insider in the rebel camp, its leaders were advised by ECI officials to occupy Trinamool Bhawan, from where the party has been functioning while its permanent headquarters has been under renovation for several years.

The takeover, the insider claimed, had been planned in advance after discussions with Bhattacharya. "We had already spoken to Chandrima Bhattacharya after which the date and time were fixed. We visited the office when Chandrima Bhattacharya was alone, so it was easy to take control."

The rebels, including Akhruzzaman, Sandipan Saha, Firhad Hakim, Ritabrata Banerjee, Shamim Ahmed and Javed Khan, reportedly gathered at a bypass dhaba where they observed the movement of leaders entering and leaving the office. According to the rebel camp, one of them informed Chandrima Bhattacharya over the phone that they had arrived, while TV media were also alerted to witness the takeover. 

The office assistant and caretaker known as ‘Kyabla da’ said he was asked to leave the premises. "I don't know who is the real TMC or rebel TMC as I always saw them together. But today they forced me out and then they locked the door with their own lock and key. I don't know whether they will allow me to work here," he said.

Senior advocate Swadesh Taral said control of the headquarters carries considerable political significance. "With two factions claiming to be the legitimate TMC, control of the party headquarters assumes significant political and symbolic importance. Physical control of the headquarters enables a faction to project itself as the functioning leadership, influence party workers and reinforce its claim to being the 'real' TMC,” he said. “Although possession of the party office does not determine recognition by the Election Commission, it carries considerable weight in shaping public perception and demonstrating organisational strength during an internal power struggle."

Mamata Banerjee lost no time in going live on Facebook to claim that the office was legally rented until October 2027 and that all rent, maintenance and utility payments had been made through banks and cheques. “The office is the institutional property of the TMC and cannot be taken over by any individual," she said, while criticising the deployment of Central forces. She also confirmed that an FIR had been lodged against illegal trespass.