Rebel Trinamool MLAs Oust Mamata Banerjee as Party Chairperson
Rebel MLAs of the Trinamool Congress on Monday (June 22, 2026) removed party founder and former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from the post of chairperson at a meeting held in Kolkata. Former Minister Arup Roy was unanimously chosen as the new chairperson, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Ritabrata Banerjee told reporters after the meeting.
MLAs Sandipan Saha, Jawed Khan and Mr. Ritabrata were declared as general secretaries. Former Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, former Minister Aroop Biswas, and Rathin Ghosh were named as vice-presidents of the rebel faction, while Raghunathganj MLA Akhruzzaman will be the new treasurer.
“We have followed all the rules of the Election Commission. We will also notify the EC about the development. Everything has been done legally,” Mr. Ritabrata said.
When told that Ms. Banerjee remained the chairperson and Abhishek Banerjee the general secretary of the Trinamool group at Kalighat, Mr. Ritabrata said he was not concerned about developments at Kalighat and claimed that their faction was the real Trinamool. “We do not know what has been announced from Kalighat. People are being appointed there but they also seem to be resigning the next day. There is no point in discussing about them,” Mr. Ritabrata said.
The banner hung by the rebel faction did not have a photograph of Ms. Banerjee.
Responding to the move, Beleghata MLA Kunal Ghosh, a loyalist of Ms. Banerjee, said the developments were comical and that “there cannot be a Trinamool without Mamata Banerjee.” “It is a comedy show. A man who has been expelled from the Trinamool is holding a special session. The matter is in court and we believe justice will be done. We do not give any importance to such comical behavior. Trinamool is Mamata Banerjee. All else is a circus,” Mr. Ghosh said.
Trinamool Congress was founded by Ms. Banerjee in 1998 and came to power in 2011, ending the 34-year rule of the Left Front. The rebellion began after the 2026 Assembly election, when Trinamool lost to the Bharatiya Janata Party.
On June 3, 58 MLAs of the party supported Mr. Ritabrata in his claim to be the Leader of the Opposition. That number has now increased to 65, he claimed. Of the 80 Trinamool MLAs in the Assembly, 14 have backed Ms. Banerjee, while one legislator is in jail. In the Lok Sabha, 20 of the party’s 28 MPs have decided to part ways with Ms. Banerjee and formed a separate group. They have merged with the little-known Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) and decided to support the BJP-led government at the Centre.
