2026 All India Trinamool Congress split

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On 4 May 2026, after the 2026 West Bengal assembly polls result was declared, 15-year ruling All India Trinamool Congress government led by the founder-chairperson of the party and then Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee lost the power from the state and for the first time, the India's ruling party, Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in the state with former Trinamool leader and once Mamata's close aide Suvendu Adhikari succeeding as Chief Minister on 9 May, after Mamata. Mamata Banerjee herself lost her own seat Bhabanipur to her successor, Adhikari.^[1][2]

Following the defeat, Mamata Banerjee called a meeting of winning candidates in her residence in Kolkata, but out of 80 winning candidates, only 66 were present. Soon after that, on 11 May, former senior minister and newly elected AITC MLA from Ballygunge, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay was declared as Leader of Opposition by the party leadership through the letter written by Abhishek Banerjee, General Secretary of the party.^[3] But, two AITC MLAs namely Ritabrata Banerjee from Uluberia Purba and Sandipan Saha from Entally allegedly lodged a complaint to speaker Rathindra Bose that the letter submitted to Speaker of the house is illegal, due to fake signatures of the MLAs. On 22 May, During CM Suvendu's tour to New Delhi, where a secret meeting was held between Ritabrata and Suvendu in Banga Bhawan, New Delhi.^[4]

On the other hand, many councillors in various municipalities such as Bhatpara, Kanthi, North Barrackpur resigned. In Chandannagar, the entire municipal board was dissolved, following the resignation of councillors along with Mayor. Soon after that, on 26 May, MP from Barasat, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar resigned from various AITC organisational posts, taking responsibility of defeat of the party.^[5][6] After her resignation, she attended CM Adhikari's administrative meeting held in Kalyani, along with 20 newly elected AITC MLAs, among whom were AITC MLAs from Swarupnagar Bina Mondal, from Haroa Abdul Matin Muhammad and from Deganga Anisur Rahaman Bidesh and others.^[7][8]

Various spokespersons such as Riju Dutta, Kohinoor Mazumder, Supriyo Chanda were suspended from the party, following their comments in favour of BJP government and Suvendu and allegedly for anti-party activities such as blaming openly Abhishek Banerjee through various media platforms.^[9][10] Two councillors of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, such as Arup Chakraborty and Susanta Ghosh also resigned from their posts in the KMC.^[11]

Central Bureau of Investigation, Enforcement Directorate, National Investigation Agency, Kolkata Police and West Bengal Police arrested several AITC councillors, former ministers, MLAs and other leaders, which include Sujit Bose, Saokat Molla against whom several complaints were lodged by the public across the West Bengal.^[12][13]

After consulting with Mamata, former Minister, MLA from Kolkata Port and the Mayor of Kolkata Firhad Hakim resigned from his post on 5 June 2026.^[14][15]

On 1 June 2026, Ritabrata and Sandipan were suspended permanently from the party, for insulting party's general secretary Abhishek Banerjee for election loss in front of media.^[16]

Following the suspension, 60 MLAs gave support to Ritabrata–Sandipan faction and therefore, led to Ritabrata as new Leader of Opposition, succeeding Sovandeb Chattopadhyay. The list of 60 MLAs signature was handed over to the Speaker Rathindra Bose and he declared Ritabrata as LoP of the house.^[17]

The split also led to the dissolution of all the committees of All India Trinamool Congress and the party announced a review of the party structure.^[18]

After appointment of LoP as Ritabrata, a split happened in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha as at least 20 MPs made a separate decision led by Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar to support National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and Narendra Modi-government.^[19] Later, some more MPs which include Mala Roy, Saayoni Ghosh and Yusuf Pathan also joined the rebels.^[20]

Later, on 8 June 2026, Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy resigned from both party as well as post of MP, citing party's mismanagement during election.^[21][22]

On 13 June 2026, Satabdi Roy convinced veteran AITC leader, close aide to Mamata Banerjee and former Union Minister, Sudip Bandyopadhyay to join the rebel faction and make the tally 20/28.^[23]

On 2 July 2026, Ritabrata, Sandipan and another 8 MLAs went to Delhi to meet Gyanesh Kumar, Chief Election Commissioner and his full ECI team bench to claim the party symbol and name, along with the fund.

Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar formed a group within the All India Trinamool Congress, and challenged the leadership of Abhishek Banerjee. She held a meeting with several other members of parliament and union minister Bhupender Yadav in Delhi. Soon after, she claimed that her group supported the Modi government. She sent a letter of support from majority members of parliament of Trinamool Congress to Om Birla, the Lok Sabha speaker.^[24]

The Rebels have announced that they have temporarily merged with the NCPI and they will fight for the legitimacy of being the Real AITC in the Supreme Court.^[25] On 14 June 2026, Dastidar, along other members of parliament, announced their merger with the NCPI.

List of Rebel Lok Sabha MPs, now NCPI MPs

More information No., Constituency ...

No.	Constituency	Portrait	Name	Notes
1	Cooch Behar (SC)		Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia
2	Jangipur		Khalilur Rahaman
3	Baharampur		Yusuf Pathan
4	Murshidabad		Abu Taher Khan
5	Barrackpore		Partha Bhowmick
6	Barasat		Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar	Leader
7	Mathurapur (SC)		Bapi Halder
8	Jadavpur		Saayoni Ghosh
9	Kolkata Dakshin		Mala Roy
10	Kolkata Uttar		Sudip Bandyopadhyay
11	Howrah		Prasun Banerjee
12	Hooghly		Rachana Banerjee
13	Arambagh (SC)		Mitali Bag
14	Ghatal		Deepak Adhikari
15	Jhargram (ST)		Kalipada Soren
16	Medinipur		June Malia
17	Bankura		Arup Chakraborty
18	Bardhaman Purba (SC)		Sharmila Sarkar
19	Bolpur (SC)		Asit Kumar Mal
20	Birbhum		Satabdi Roy	Deputy Leader

Close

The Split first took place in the Legislative Assembly when Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha complained to the speaker of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly and therefore got the support of 64 MLAs, including their signatures for appointing Ritabrata as the leader of the opposition.

The following are some of the names of the MLAs who have rebelled:^[26]

• 2022 Maharashtra political crisis
• 2026 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election
• 2023 Nationalist Congress Party split