TMC Split: Mamata Banerjee, former West Bengal chief minister, for the first time saw a major split of her party, TMC, which was founded in 1998. On Wednesday, in a dramatic turn of events, 58 rebel MLAs seized control of the party's legislature wing, electing expelled legislator Ritabrata Banerjee as its leader, following which the West Bengal Assembly Speaker recognised him as the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the assembly.
Addressing a press conference in the Assembly after meeting Speaker Rathindra Bose, Ritabrata Banerjee claimed that the dissident camp enjoyed the support of a two-thirds majority of the TMC's 80 MLAs and had formally staked its claim to lead the legislature party.
What Ritabrata Said After Snatching TMC From Mamata
Ritabrata urged TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee to serve as chief adviser to the newly constituted legislature team, even as the dissidents declared themselves the "real" Trinamool Congress in the Assembly.
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"Our claim has been accepted by the Speaker," Ritabrata said. Claiming legitimacy based on numbers, he asserted that the dissident faction now represented the true opposition in the House. "The TMC legislative party is a team of 58 MLAs who won on the TMC symbol," he said.
Who Is Ritabrata?
Ritabrata Banerjee, who won from the Uluberia East seat in the 2026 assembly elections, is now an expelled TMC MLA. However, he claimed that his camp is the original TMC. Born November 15, 1979, he attended South Point High School in Kolkata. The TMC leader earned a BA from Asutosh College, and an MA in English from the University of Calcutta. Ritabrata began his political journey with the student union - SFI, the student wing of the CPI(M). In 2014, at the age of 34, the CPI(M) elected him to the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal. In 2017, he was expelled from the CPI(M). Later, he joined the TMC in 2020. He also served as Bengal TM president.
(With Agencies Inputs)