Browsing: TMC

The Calcutta High Court on Thursday, June 18, 2026, refused to pass an interim stay on West Bengal Legislative Assembly Speaker Rathindra Bose’s decision to recognize rebel Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA Ritabrata Banerjee as the Leader of the Opposition (LoP).

The ongoing political turmoil within West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has intensified into a full-blown constitutional and legal battle. Following a major internal split, rebel leader Ritabrata Banerjee declared that his faction is prepared to approach the Election Commission of India (ECI) to stake an official claim to the party’s identity and symbol.

The internal fissures ripping through the Trinamool Congress (TMC) exploded into a full-scale parliamentary crisis on Sunday, June 14, 2026, as a powerful dissident faction formalized a strategy to break away from the party’s central high command. The rebel camp, marshaled by several disgruntled senior lawmakers, has officially scheduled a high-stakes meeting with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla for Monday morning to demand formal recognition as a separate parliamentary group. Claiming the allegiance of a “substantial number” of sitting TMC MPs, the faction aims to bypass the rigorous penal disqualifications of the Tenth Schedule (Anti-Defection Law) by proving they hold a definitive two-thirds legislative majority of the party’s elected lower-house strength. In Kolkata, the core leadership under West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee moved swiftly to contain the damage, fiercely condemning the mutiny as a treasonous conspiracy orchestrated to erode the regional party’s formidable clout in New Delhi. While the TMC high command prepares a slate of immediate suspension notices and legal counters, the outcome of Monday’s memorandum submission remains heavily dependent on the Speaker’s structural ruling, a decision that could radically alter national opposition alignments and shift the power balance within West Bengal’s hyper-polarized political ecosystem.