For nearly three decades, Mamata Banerjee has been the undisputed face, voice, and absolute authority of the Trinamool Congress (TMC). That era ended June 22 when a faction removed her as party chairperson during a meeting at a five-star hotel, effectively staging an internal coup to sideline the supremo.The coup’s mechanics rely on a constitutional loophole weaponised by the first-time MLA who has turned out to be the party’s turncoat mastermind, Ritabrata Banerjee. Citing Article 20 of the TMC constitution, which mandates forming a new National Working Committee every three years, the breakaway group argues that the last committee, registered in February 2022, expired without formal renewal. This, they claim, renders the existing high command legally void.How things happenedImmediately following the presenting of the state budget by the new Bharatiya Janata Party government, both factions moved aggressively to claim the party’s legal identity. Refusing to cede ground, Mamata Banerjee dispatched a revised working committee list to the Election Commission in Delhi, asserting her continued control. This updated “Kalighat list” – an allusion to the locality where the former chief minister lives – excluded turncoat MPs Saayoni Ghosh and Mala Roy, who formally defected to the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), and Jyotipriya Mallick, who recently resigned citing illness.Simultaneously, Ritabrata Banerjee’s turncoat faction convened a special session to seize organisational control. The party’s executive core was restructured to strip the Kalighat high command of its traditional regional anchors. The breakaway group’s newly formed National Working Committee installed Howrah Madhya MLA Arup Roy as chairman. This is ironic, given that Roy was not really a frontrunner when the TMC was selecting candidates for the April assembly polls. He was able to secure his ticket only, reportedly, at Mamata Banerjee’s insistence. In what is perhaps a calculated ploy to diminish Mamata’s command without severing her emotional bond with the base, this group has offered the founder the purely ornamental position of Chief Advisor. LoP in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly Ritabrata Banerjee, left, addresses a press conference, in Kolkata, West Bengal, Monday, June 22, 2026. Photo: PTI.The high command struck back, issuing show-cause notices for anti-party activities to key figures including Firhad Hakim, Javed Khan, Aroop Biswas, Arup Roy, Rathin Ghosh, Sabina Yasmin, Snehasis Chakraborty, and Biplab Mitra. Yet the fracture runs so deep that even Sourav Basu, a Kolkata councillor and son of Mamata Banerjee’s newly appointed state president Chandrima Bhattacharya, was spotted at the rebel session.Perhaps the most fatal blow to Mamata’s surviving faction is the mass exodus of prominent Muslim leaders, fundamentally fracturing her core voter base. Of the 80 TMC MLAs elected in 2026, 31 are Muslims. Powerful minority satraps across the state, including Firhad Hakim and Javed Khan of Kolkata, Kajal Sheikh of Birbhum, Sabina Yasmin of Malda, Akhruzzaman of Murshidabad, and Mohammad Ghulam Rabbani of Uttar Dinajpur, have shifted to the turncoat camp in a move seemingly aimed at self-preservation, systematically stripping the TMC under Mamata of its minority faces.Nowhere is this instinct toward self-preservation clearer than in the illegal encroachment controversy surrounding veteran leader Javed Khan. Following a fire at an unauthorised factory at Ward 66 in Tiljala, managed by Khan’s son, councillor Faiyaz Ahmed Khan, the civic administration launched an aggressive demolition drive. Soon after, Javed Khan jumped ship.While these heavyweight defections are acts of pure self-preservation, they risk triggering massive disillusionment among grassroots Muslim voters. For over a decade, this demographic voted en bloc to protect the state’s secular fabric. Now, they are watching their prominent representatives align with a camp that allegedly operates via a backchannel understanding with Delhi to secure personal administrative immunity.The numbers have itThe Arup Roy-Ritabrata Banerjee camp roster leans heavily on veteran regional satraps, appointing former state minister Aroop Biswas alongside Hakim and Ghosh as vice-presidents. Biswas, currently under investigation in the Lionel Messi scandal, has already leveraged his former role as party treasurer to petition banks to freeze Trinamool’s official accounts. Meanwhile, Raghunathganj MLA Akhruzzaman, who reportedly convinced two Murshidabad MPs to switch loyalties, was rewarded with the treasurer post.The sheer numbers make this crisis qualitatively different from earlier party grumblings. The TMC has effectively fractured into three distinct power centres comprising Mamata Banerjee loyalists, the legislative rebel camp led by Arup Roy and Ritabrata Banerjee, and a breakaway parliamentary wing that merged with the obscure NCPI to support the BJP-led NDA government in Delhi.The rebel camp boasts formidable numbers, with over 60 MLAs and 70 Kolkata councillors reportedly attending the New Town session. Tellingly, for the first time in party history, the TMC stage was entirely devoid of Mamata Banerjee’s image, replacing her with national and cultural icons like Mahatma Gandhi, Dr B.R. Ambedkar, Rabindranath Tagore, and Nazrul Islam. It would be premature to dismiss the street fighter that Mamata Banerjee used to be just yet. She remains a formidable political survivor. Dismissing the New Town meeting as an illegal “comedy show,” her loyalist faction is preparing for a protracted legal war anchored in recent Supreme Court precedents.Ultimately, the survival of the Trinamool Congress, or whichever faction successfully claims its legacy, will be decided not on the streets of Bengal, but before the Election Commission of India and the courts. To claim the party name and the coveted “twin flowers” symbol, the rebels must prove their legitimacy. Failing to secure ECI recognition risks severe consequences under the Tenth Schedule’s anti-defection law, including the potential loss of their elected seats. While this legal battle may drag on for years, the undisputed hegemony of Mamata Banerjee is undeniably dead. The Trinamool Congress, as a unified, single-leader entity, has taken its last breath, leaving Bengal’s political landscape deeply fractured and ripe for a resurgence of class-based politics.