Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee continues to face dissent in the party and it seems that her troubles are unlikely to end anytime soon, as she once again called a meeting TMC MPs and MLAs at her Kalighat residence on Friday, but only 14 of lawmakers attended it.
For the unreversed, the TMC has 42 parliamentarians (29 in Lok Sabha and 13 in Rajya Sabha), and 80 MLAs in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly. However, only eight MLAs and six MPs arrived at Mamata's residence in Kolkata on Friday to attend a high-level meeting.
The MLAs were came forward for the meeting were Bina Mondal, Ashima Patra, Madan Mitra, Kunal Ghosh, Firhad Hakim, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, Biman Banerjee, and Ashok Kumar Deb. Meanwhile, Dola Sen, Mala Roy, Kalyan Banerjee, Abhishek Banerjee, Derek O'Brien, and Sudip Bandyopadhyay were the six MPs.
The incident once again highlighted the growing rebellion that Mamata is facing, but the party was quick to issue a clarification, saying it was not a meeting of all legislators. "Pls note - it was a NATIONAL WORKING COMMITTEE and not of ALL MLAs or MPs. Many MPs like Mahua Moitra, Sushmita Dev, Mukul Sangma and Rajesh Tripathi, who are part of the National WC, had joined virtually," the TMC said in a statement.
The rebellion in TMC
Mamata first faced a rebellion in the 294-member West Bengal Assembly where the dissenters are led by expelled leader Ritabrata Banerjee. Ritabrata, who was expelled from TMC for anti-party activities along with Sandipan Saha, has a support of 57 MLAs, which has effectively split the party in the assembly. Ritabrata has been declared Leader of Opposition (LoP) after the dissenters secured the recongition of Speaker Rathindra Bose.
Mamata is also staring at a rebellion in the Parliament where several of its members from both Houses have openly expressed their dissatisfaction with the Trinamool leadership and are reportedly planning a switch to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or a split in the party.
Thus, Mamata is reportedly considering moving to the Lok Sabha. It is worth noting that the former chief minister had even lost her seat of Bhabanipur to CM Suvendu Adhikari in the 2026 assembly elections.
According to reports, TMC may ask Lok Sabha MP Yusuf Pathan to vacate the Baharampur seat, which he won in the 2024 general elections, defeating Congress veteran Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. There is no official confirmation on this, but Mamata's move to the lower House would be interesting and is likely to be a move to suppress the rebellion against her in the Lok Sabha.
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