TMC Split Deepens: Bengal MLAs Oppose BJP While Rebel MPs Back NDA

The Trinamool Congress finds itself split between two competing political directions, with breakaway legislators in West Bengal positioning themselves against the BJP while a rebel group of Lok Sabha MPs has moved towards the BJP-led NDA.

The parallel developments have exposed a contradiction at the heart of the party’s fractured structure. While both factions claim to represent the TMC’s political essence and justify their actions in the name of Bengal’s development, they have adopted sharply different positions on their relationship with the BJP, raising questions about the party’s identity in both state and national politics.

According to PTI, the majority of MLAs who formed the breakaway faction of the TMC’s legislative party and secured legitimacy in the state Assembly pledged “constructive opposition” while simultaneously positioning themselves against the BJP’s politics in Bengal. Five days later, rebel Lok Sabha parliamentarians followed suit, but pledged allegiance to the BJP-led NDA.

Both factions sought to legitimise their actions by invoking the cause of Bengal’s development, arguing 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 the TMC’s 80 legislators — more than the two-thirds required for legislative identity — secured recognition from Assembly Speaker Rathindra Bose as the Leader of the Opposition, formally crystallising a breakaway faction within the legislature.

The group, while asserting autonomy from the party’s central leadership, particularly national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, adopted an aggressive political posture and declared its intention to function as the principal opposition force in the House.

“We will deliver constructive opposition on the floor of the House, which won’t be opposition for the sake of opposition like before. It will be an opposition for the sake of Bengal’s development. Politically, we will not grant an inch to the BJP,” Ritabrata had told reporters.

Yet five days later, on June 8, a strikingly similar but ideologically divergent development unfolded in Delhi.

PTI reported that a section of the TMC’s parliamentary unit, reportedly comprising 20 of its 28 Lok Sabha MPs and led by Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, submitted a communication to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla expressing alignment with the BJP-led NDA, leaving Mamata Banerjee weakened in the country’s highest legislative forum.

The move signalled a split within the party’s national representation and an unexpected drift towards the ruling coalition at the Centre.

"We have accepted the people's verdict and believe that our future political course should be aligned with NDA," Ghosh Dastidar said.

The two developments expose a rare organisational contradiction: one faction of the same party positioning itself as a combative anti-BJP opposition in the state, while another appears to be gravitating towards alignment with the BJP at the national level.

The result is not merely organisational disunity but a deeper ideological incoherence that risks redefining what “opposition” means within the TMC’s fractured structure.

The contradiction also underscores the growing asymmetry between state and national politics in India’s federal party system.

Political analyst Subhomoy Maitra said the explanation for the paradox may lie in the nature of India’s parliamentary democracy.

“The biggest success a party can achieve in our parliamentary democratic system is in its ability to choose both the ruling bloc as well as the opposition,” he said.

Referring to the broader practice of right-wing politics in India, Maitra said the TMC episode illustrated how the same organisational label could simultaneously accommodate resistance to and alignment with the BJP depending on the arena of power.

“A closer look at RSS will reveal that it conducts its politics through a range of fronts. Its approach is not confined to a single party; rather, it is an ideology-driven project embedded within society, of which the BJP is the principal political vehicle,” Maitra said.

He argued that the RSS does not invest exclusively in the BJP.

“It is often argued that traces of RSS-linked influence can be found across different political formations. Connections between the RSS, Hindu Mahasabha, and sections of Congress have long been discussed, while some critics even describe parties such as AAP and TMC as products of a broader political environment shaped by the RSS.

“Although the RSS and the Left occupy opposite ends of ideological spectrum, the political space between them accommodates a range of actors whose positions can shift according to circumstance,” he said.

According to PTI, Maitra said this fluidity allows the same party to exhibit different political manifestations in different contexts.

“In Bengal, for instance, a party may present itself as an opponent of the BJP, while at the national level it may align with or support the NDA on key issues. For a party such as TMC, lacking a coherent ideological foundation and operating from a position outside power, such a multi-layered political existence has become a practical necessity,” he said.

The BJP has little reason to object to this duality. Regardless of the TMC’s public posture, observers say, its actions often serve the BJP’s broader political interests.

“The BJP understands that parties constrained by ideological inconsistency and political vulnerability may adopt confrontational rhetoric when required, yet ultimately remain within a framework that does not fundamentally challenge the larger political order,” an observer said.

Whether the duality is an isolated tactical deviation or an early sign of a structural realignment remains uncertain.

But what is clear is that the TMC’s internal fragmentation has moved beyond factional noise into a deeper redefinition of political identity, where opposition, alliance and survival are no longer fixed categories but competing interpretations of the same party line.

PTI reported that Mamata Banerjee’s effective strength has been reduced to around 20 MLAs and eight MPs. Analysts say individual political positions could serve as temporary glue for those who remain.

“A part of the leaders who stayed back are from Congress or have backgrounds in far Left ideals, both of whom are ideologically opposed to the BJP. They may, for now, stay with Mamata for political reasons. But there’s no stopping them from crossing over later,” the observer said.

(With inputs from PTI)