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The Lok Sabha Secretariat has issued notices to 20 rebel Trinamool Congress MPs and sought their replies within seven days on petitions filed by TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee seeking their disqualification under the anti-defection law, sources said. The notices, dated August 25, forwarded a copy of Banerjee's petition dated June 18 filed against the MPs, who joined the NCPI, under Rule 6 of the Members of Lok Sabha (Disqualification on Ground of Defection) Rules, 1985. The Secretariat has asked the MPs to furnish their comments on the petition within seven days of receipt of the notice, the sources said. The development comes a day after the Supreme Court agreed to hear Banerjee's plea seeking an expeditious decision on the disqualification petitions. A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana agreed to hear Banerjee's plea questioning the alleged delay in deciding the disqualification proceedings. The apex court, while issuing notice to t
Three months into its second stint in opposition after 15 years in power, the TMC faces a question that could determine the shape of West Bengal politics for years to come: can Mamata Banerjee rebuild a party no longer united behind her, or will its electoral defeat permanently fracture Bengal's principal opposition formation. Three competing centres now shape the crisis -- the Mamata Banerjee camp, the Ritabrata Banerjee-led rebel faction and 20 Lok Sabha MPs who have moved to the NCPI and extended support to the NDA. The battle has reached the Election Commission, with rival factions staking claims to the organisation, while the parliamentary rupture has sharply reduced TMC's Lok Sabha presence. For Mamata, the immediate challenge is not to recreate the TMC but to build a party capable of functioning without government and political protection that came with 15 years in office. The crisis has moved beyond defections to a battle over the TMC's organisation, elected representatives
Former deputy speaker of West Bengal Assembly, Ashis Banerjee, was found hanging at a TMC party office in Birbhum district on Sunday morning, police sources said. A purported suicide note was also recovered from the party office located near his residence in Hattala Para in Rampurhat, they said. Police reached the spot and sent the body for post-mortem examination. The exact circumstances leading to his death are yet to be ascertained, and police are examining the contents of the purported suicide note, the sources said. Banerjee, a veteran TMC leader, had represented Rampurhat in the state Assembly continuously from 2001 till 2026. He had served as the deputy speaker of the Assembly and held ministerial portfolios, including school education and agriculture, in the Mamata Banerjee government. He contested the 2026 Assembly elections from Rampurhat on a TMC ticket but lost to BJP's Dhruva Saha by more than 24,000 votes. After his electoral defeat, Banerjee was not seen to be ...
The Calcutta High Court on Monday refused the Mamata Banerjee faction of the Trinamool Congress interim permission to operate three of the party's bank accounts frozen by the Enforcement Directorate. The ED froze the three bank accounts of the Trinamool Congress with balances amounting to Rs 440.42 crore in connection with its probe based on an FIR lodged by the state police in alleged dishonest financial dealings, unlawful collection of money, and routing of suspected funds through certain bank accounts of the party. Justice Krishna Rao had on July 13 reserved the interim order on the prayer after arguments by the parties in the matter were concluded. According to officials, the Enforcement Directorate's preliminary investigation found that about Rs 160 crore was transferred from the TMC's bank accounts to Carewell Aviation India Pvt. Ltd. and its related entity between April 2023 and June 2026. The company is alleged to have further routed Rs 82.96 crore (between 2023 and 2026) t
The entire opposition on Sunday staged a symbolic walk out from the all-party meeting convened here ahead of Parliament's Monsoon Session to protest against the invitation extended to rebel TMC MPs. The opposition also protested against Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla's decisions on the rebel TMC lawmakers, allowing them separate seats in the House and merger of the rebel Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs with the Shiv Sena led by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. "Opposition decided to walk out of all-party meeting to protest the Speaker's decision on rebel MPs of TMC, Shiv Sena (UBT)," Congress leader Pramod Tiwari told reporters at Parliament House complex where the meeting is underway. CPM leader John Brittas said the invitation to rebel TMC MPs to the all-party meet was a "miscarriage of justice". The opposition members returned to the meeting venue after a brief period and participated the proceeding. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju had on Saturday invited leader of
Launching a blistering counterattack against the rebel faction that has torn the Trinamool Congress apart, party supremo Mamata Banerjee on Saturday accused the dissidents of conspiring with the BJP to engineer a split and dared them to formally join the saffron party if they had the courage. In an emotionally charged Facebook Live address, her first since the party plunged into its worst organisational crisis, Banerjee defended her leadership, lashed out at the rebels, vowed to press ahead with the TMC's July 21 Martyrs' Day rally despite administrative hurdles, and declared that while individuals may desert the party, "an institution does not cease to exist". Responding to the allegations, the BJP claimed that leaders were quitting TMC because the cut money, which "acted as its binding glue", has been stopped after the saffron party came to power. "I dare the treacherous and ungrateful traitors who are abandoning the party to directly join the BJP and take me on if they have the .
In yet another setback for the Mamata Banerjee faction of the Trinamool Congress, the party's Bengal state president Chandrima Bhattacharya stepped down from her position on Saturday, barely a month after she was entrusted with the crucial organisational responsibility in the aftermath of the party's assembly election debacle. In a letter addressed to the Trinamool Congress chairperson, Bhattacharya also resigned from all other posts she held in the party, triggering speculations on whether she had severed her ties with the party for all practical purposes. A former minister in the erstwhile Mamata Banerjee government in charge of key departments like Finance and Health as Minister of state, and a prominent leader of the party who led its women's wing Bhattacharya also withdrew herself as the party's authorised signatory of its accounts maintained in various banks and as Mamata Banerjee's authorised point person to appear before the Election Commission. Bhattacharya was named stat
For the first time since the TMC was founded by Mamata Banerjee in 1998, a rebel faction on Monday replaced her as the party chairperson and elected senior MLA Arup Roy to the post, while unveiling a parallel leadership structure. At a special session here, the faction led by Leader of the Opposition Ritabrata Banerjee constituted a new national leadership hierarchy, directly challenging the authority of Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee, the party's national general secretary. The rebellion within the TMC crossed a political Rubicon as dissident leaders moved beyond challenging the leadership and sought to remake the organisation itself, projecting their camp as the legitimate continuation of the party. Held at a hotel here, the 31-minute special session brought together rebel MLAs, former councillors and party functionaries from across the state. The political messaging was unmistakable. While the TMC's twin-flower symbol remained prominently displayed, portraits
The internecine war within the TMC took a new turn on Thursday with "party treasurer" Aroop Biswas writing to a bank seeking restrictions on the operation of the party's accounts, citing uncertainty over its legitimate leadership amid rebellions and splits by MLAs and MPs. The move is being seen as a fresh setback for the camp led by former chief minister Mamata Banerjee, coming days after dissident MLAs and MPs challenged the authority of the Trinamool Congress's central leadership following the party's defeat in the assembly polls, and staked claim to being the "real" TMC. A two-page letter, addressed to the manager of a private bank's Central Plaza branch in Kolkata, made rounds on social media, though PTI could not independently verify its authenticity. The bank did not respond to queries, while calls and text messages to Biswas, a former minister and once considered a loyalist of Banerjee, remained unanswered. According to the letter dated June 12, Biswas sought maintenance of
The Madhya Pradesh High Court has lifted the interim stay on an arrest warrant issued against Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, nephew of former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in a defamation case. The decision is likely to increase legal troubles for the TMC general secretary, who is already facing an investigation by the Enforcement Directorate on corruption charges. A single bench of Justice Pramod Kumar Agarwal on Wednesday dismissed Abhishek Banerjee's petition and lifted the stay, granted in November 2025, on the execution of the arrest warrant issued by a special Bhopal court. Former Indore MLA Akash Vijayvargiya, son of senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and minister Kailash Vijayvargiya, filed the defamation case against Abhishek Banerjee in the MP-MLA court in Bhopal in 2021. The defamation suit alleged that Abhishek Banerjee called Akash Vijayvargiya a "goon" while addressing a rally in Kolkata in November 2020. The MP-MLA court had issued th
The crisis in the Trinamool Congress deepened on Sunday as dissident MPs announced their merger with the little-known Nationalist Citizens Party of India and met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking a separate seating arrangement in the House, even as TMC parliamentary party leader Abhishek Banerjee urged Birla not to accord any recognition to the breakaway faction. Lok Sabha MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay said the rebel faction would also fight in court to be recognised as the real TMC and will stake claim to its poll symbol. Speaking to reporters after their meeting with Birla, rebel MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said 20 TMC MPs had signed a representation submitted to the Speaker. "Two-thirds of TMC MPs have given a letter to the Speaker for a separate seating arrangement. We will merge with the Nationalist Citizens Party and support the NDA," she said. The Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) is a Tripura-based registered unrecognised party that does not enjoy any significant political
The Enforcement Directorate has been carrying out raids since early Saturday at multiple properties, allegedly linked to TMC MLA Madan Mitra, in West Bengal as part of its money laundering investigation into municipality recruitment "irregularities", officials said. A total of seven premises allegedly linked to Mitra, a former minister in the previous TMC regime, are being searched, they said. Search operations were launched at Mitra's Bhabanipur residence in south Kolkata, alongside a five-floor apartment in Dakshineswar on the northern fringes of the city and a flat in Joka on Kolkata's southern outskirts, they said. Raids are also taking place at a property in Beleghata in north Kolkata and the premises of two local clubs in Bhabanipur and Santoshpur, the officials added. The leader was also being questioned by the investigators at his Dhirendranath Gupta Road residence in Bhabanipur, where he was reportedly staying with his family. Mitra represents the Kamarhati assembly seat
Police issued a fresh notice to former West Bengal sports minister Aroop Biswas on Saturday, asking him to appear before investigators within 48 hours for questioning in a case related to the chaos at the Lionel Messi event at Salt Lake Stadium in December. Biswas had not complied with two notices sent by the Bidhannagar police earlier to appear before it for questioning in the case. He had sought time for appearance, citing personal reasons, sources said. They said that officers served the third notice at the registered address of the former minister. This came after the Calcutta High Court granted protection to Biswas from coercive action till August 17 and directed him to appear before the probe agency on a notice by it, which is to be served at least 48 hours prior. The case stems from an FIR lodged against him by the event organiser Shatadru Dutta, accusing the former minister of black-marketing tickets, extortion, criminal intimidation and cheating in connection with the ...
In a dramatic pre-dawn operation that triggered a political storm in West Bengal, a large contingent of police, accompanied by central forces, raided the Kalighat residence of TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Saturday in connection with a case filed in a police station in Paschim Medinipur district, a senior officer said. The development came barely two days after the West Bengal CID questioned Banerjee in connection with the alleged forged-signature case linked to the state assembly and amid a series of fresh summons issued to him by multiple investigating agencies. According to local sources, police teams, including officers from Paschim Medinipur's Salboni Police Station and Kolkata Police, arrived outside Banerjee's Patuapara residence shortly after 3 am. Central force personnel took positions outside the premises while police officers attempted to enter the house. The TMC alleged that the police teams broke open the lock and entered Banerjee's premises. The
Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Prakash Chik Baraik resigned from the Upper House on Thursday, the third party MP to quit this week. Baraik met Rajya Sabha Chairman CP Radhakrishnan and submitted his resignation, sources said. In his resignation letter, the West Bengal MP wrote, "I do hereby resign from the membership of Rajya Sabha, which may please be accepted with immediate effect." He also thanked the chairman, deputy chairman and officials of the Rajya Sabha Secretariat for their cooperation during his tenure. A tribal leader from West Bengal, Baraik was serving as a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and the Consultative Committee on Tribal Affairs. His resignation comes amid a series of exits from the Trinamool Congress. On Monday, Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Ray resigned from the Upper House and subsequently announced his decision to quit the Trinamool Congress, citing differences with the party ...
Trinamool Congress MP Sushmita Dev on Wednesday resigned as a member of the Rajya Sabha, the second TMC MP to resign this week. Dev, a former Congress leader who had joined the TMC a few years ago, met Rajya Sabha chairman C P Radhakrishnan and resigned from the membership of the House. She is the second MP of the TMC to resign this week. Earlier, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray had tendered his resignation from the party as well as the Rajya Sabha. Sources said Dev is likely to quit the TMC and join the BJP. She has also met Assam chief minister Humanta Biswa Sarma. In her resignation letter, she said, "I do hereby resign from the membership of Rajya Sabha, which may please be accepted with immediate effect." "I convey my sincere gratitude to your excellency, hon'ble deputy chairman and all functionaries of the Rajya Sabha secretariat extending all help and cooperation during my tenure as a member of the Rajya Sabha," Dev said in the letter to the Chairman. The Trinamool Congress is facing
The unfolding crisis within the TMC presents one of the most unusual paradoxes in recent West Bengal history: a simultaneous fragmentation of the party's legislative and parliamentary wings each charting sharply divergent ideological directions, yet both claiming to represent the "real" political essence of the organisation. The majority of MLAs, who formed the breakaway faction of the TMC's legislative party and secured legitimacy in the state assembly, vowed "constructive opposition" and simultaneously positioned themselves against the BJP's politics in Bengal, while the rebel Lok Sabha parliamentarians of the party followed suit five days later, only to pledge their allegiance to the BJP-led NDA. Both factions sought to legitimise their actions by invoking the cause of broader "development of Bengal", contending that the state's progress had been "impeded" during the Mamata Banerjee regime. On June 3, expelled MLA Ritabrata Banerjee, backed by a bloc of 58 of 80 TMC legislators
A CID team on Tuesday entered Trinamool Congress's central party office-cum-residence of party supremo Mamata Banerjee in Kalighat area here, after a brief standoff with security personnel and a party leader, as a part of its probe into the controversy surrounding alleged forged signatures of TMC MLAs, which has triggered a split in the party. Officials of the state investigating agency, accompanied by personnel from the Kalighat police station and a large contingent of women police personnel, arrived at the party's central office at 30B Harish Chatterjee Street around late afternoon, sources said. The CID's move comes days after the agency served notices seeking information related to the alleged forging of signatures of TMC legislators on a proposal submitted to the Assembly Speaker for recognition of the Leader of Opposition. According to CID officials present at the spot, the search was sought on the basis of a reply submitted by TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee