The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has descended into a full-blown organizational war, with both the faction loyal to party chairperson Mamata Banerjee and the rebel camp submitting competing lists of office-bearers to the Election Commission (EC) .
The Mamata Banerjee-led faction submitted a revised list of its National Working Committee members and office-bearers on Monday, asserting her continued control over the party she founded in 1998 . This move came just hours before the rebel faction held a parallel special session in Kolkata, where they announced a rival organizational structure and elected senior MLA Arup Roy as a new party chairperson, directly challenging Banerjee’s leadership .
The official list: Mamata Banerjee remains chairperson
The list submitted by the loyalist camp to the Election Commission explicitly records the party’s organisational hierarchy “as of June 20, 2026” . According to reports, the document names Mamata Banerjee as the chairperson of the All India Trinamool Congress . Key office-bearers in the official list include:
- Subrata Bakshi as Vice-President
- Abhishek Banerjee as National General Secretary and Lok Sabha leader
- Derek O’Brien (Rajya Sabha MP) and Dola Sen as Joint Secretaries
- Subhasish Chakraborty as Treasurer
The 24-member National Working Committee also includes figures such as Chandrima Bhattacharya (named as West Bengal TMC president), Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay (Leader of the West Bengal Assembly), Kalyan Banerjee, Mahua Moitra, and Kunal Ghosh, among others .
The revised committee dropped several leaders who had joined the dissident camp, including Firhad Hakim and Aroop Biswas, while inducting Rajya Sabha MP Nadimul Haque into the new structure .
The rebels’ counter-move
The rebel faction, led by Leader of the Opposition Ritabrata Banerjee, elected senior MLA Arup Roy as party chairperson during its special session on June 22 . The dissidents constituted a new 30-member National Working Committee and appointed their own office-bearers, including MLAs Sandipan Saha and Jawed Khan as general secretaries .
Ritabrata Banerjee argued that the move was necessitated by a “constitutional crisis” within the party, claiming that the tenure of the last National Working Committee, constituted in February 2022, had expired . He visited the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal, on Tuesday to formally communicate the rebel faction’s decisions to the Election Commission .
“The matter is in court and we believe justice will be done,” Ritabrata Banerjee said, defending the legality of the dissident camp’s actions .
Loyalist camp dismisses rebel claims
The Mamata Banerjee camp has dismissed the rebel exercise as invalid. Senior leader Kunal Ghosh asserted that the dissidents had neither the authority to convene such a session nor the mandate to alter the party’s organisational structure .
“It is a comedy show. A man who has been expelled from the TMC is holding a special session… TMC is equal to Mamata Banerjee. All else is a circus,” Ghosh said .
The official camp also issued show-cause notices to several senior leaders, including those aligned with the rebels, for alleged anti-party activities .
Political context
The internal crisis in the TMC, which has governed West Bengal for over a decade and a half, began after its recent electoral setback . At least 58 of the party’s 80 MLAs questioned Mamata Banerjee’s leadership and formed a separate bloc within the assembly, backing Ritabrata Banerjee’s claim to the post of Leader of the Opposition .
With both factions now staking claims to the party’s legislative and organisational wings, the dispute appears increasingly likely to be fought before the Election Commission and, potentially, the courts . The central question now is which of the rival organisational structures will be recognised by election authorities .
