The Internal Crisis and Factionalism within the Trinamool Congress

The public spat between senior Trinamool MPs Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Kalyan Banerjee just keeps surfacing. It’s another crack in the façade.

And what it reveals? It just rehashes that contradiction that has been hanging over the Trinamool Congress for ages. It’s not about ideology anymore. It’s about something much dirtier. Convenience . Patronage networks . The whole messy web of money and shifting power equations that defines the party from the inside.

It started as a regional push against the Left. That’s what everyone remembers. But it morphed. It became this political ecosystem where loyalty isn't fixed. It’s transactional. Factions survive because they have access. And when the balance of power wobbles, they all explode.

Every time the Trinamool felt the ground shifting, whether it was the 2019 Lok Sabha results or gearing up for the 2021 assembly polls, the reaction was the same. People chose to jump ship instead of sticking around. They gravitated toward whoever seemed like the center of survival.

And now? After the massive first defeat, the leaders and the cadres seem to be vanishing. Poof. They just disappear, instead of staying put with their leader.

Look at the numbers now. Insiders are whispering that at least eleven more senior leaders are seriously weighing their options. Four MPs. Three former ministers. They’re not just talking. They’re looking at the exit door. This feels like the deepest internal crisis the party has faced since it started.

The factionalism isn't some abstract concept. It’s out there, in the open. It’s been spilling into the public domain whenever things get stressful. You see it everywhere.

Sougata Roy openly criticizing certain groups inside the party. Then you have the bitter clashes. Mahua Moitra and Kalyan Banerjee. Then the old MP Sudip Banerjee arguing with MLA Kunal Ghosh. And Banerjee’s sharp exchanges with Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar. Trinamool’s internal fractures aren't hidden anymore. They’re visible. They spill out.

It’s a pattern.

We saw it earlier, too. When Sukhendu Sekhar Roy and Santanu Sen broke ranks during those protests—following the RG Kar rape and murder case—it showed the rot. Then there was Dinesh Trivedi, a former railway minister, pointing out the whole culture of political violence in the state. Leaders started turning on each other. Sometimes they even dragged these disputes into official spaces, the Election Commission, Parliament.

It all traces back to a deeper power struggle. Abhishek Banerjee’s growing ecosystem versus the old Mamata loyalist guard. There’s this tension bubbling up. Mukul Roy versus Abhishek. Abhishek clashing with Suvendu Adhikari before he left in 2020. And the growing distrust between the younger strategists and the veteran organizational leaders. It’s a party where competing camps operate openly. Endless confrontations. It just exposes either Mamata Banerjee’s inability to control the fragmentation or a fundamental unwillingness to do so.

Then there’s the fallout from the recent results. Post the 2026 elections, the churn started immediately. National spokesperson Riju Dutta openly expressing discontent. He’s one of the faces you recognize in Parliament now. And then there’s Dastidar. Her outburst. It’s another sign of the turmoil inside a party that used to project this image of absolute control under Mamata Banerjee.

Dastidar’s situation isn't just about a disaGreement. It’s a careful posturing. She and her husband, Sudarshan Ghosh Dastidar, they’ve been part of that old loyalist network for decades. They stood with Mamata through the anti-Left movement.

When these faces start showing discomfort, it suggests something bigger. It’s not just small factional squabbles. It’s a genuine crisis of confidence.

The pattern repeats itself. Every time there was a stumble, the fissures opened up dramatically. Think back to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. When the BJP surged across Bengal and started chipping away at Trinamool’s dominance, defections became the norm. It started with Mukul Roy. He was the architect of the party’s structure. The 'father of factionalism.' He understood every layer of the network. His exit shook the party because he carried institutional memory, not just influence.

Then you had the simultaneous rise of Abhishek Banerjee. A parallel power center. The leadership showed unity publicly. But behind closed doors? Lots of humiliation. Exclusion. Constant interference from the younger managers and the consultant teams.

The whole dynamic shifted. The influence of strategists, data operators, the I-PAC ecosystem—that changed the party’s vibe. The old guard, who built the organization through street agitation, suddenly found themselves sidelined by presentation politics.

People started leaving. Dinesh Trivedi quit, accusing the party of abandoning democracy. Mukul Roy and Suvendu Adhikari, once central to the rural expansion push, just crossed over to the BJP. Ministers and senior figures with strong district bases? They either defected or just went quiet. What really bothers people is how these old loyalists were discarded once they stopped being useful.

To fill the void, the party started stuffing itself with film stars, actors, social media faces. Electorally useful in the cities, sure. But it created massive resentment among the long-time workers. They felt that ideological commitment, that street-level struggle, it all meant nothing anymore. They felt replaceable.

Ironically, despite all the national ambitions Mamata Banerjee has, the Trinamool Congress never really became a national force. Regional parties, like the JD(U) or the TDP, managed to stay relevant for decades because they built something deeper. Ideological roots. Organizational depth that went beyond just personality cults. Trinamool, even with all the branding, stayed mostly stuck in Bengal’s political orbit.

The real, deeper problem isn't just the opposition. It’s the foundation itself.

The TMC was born out of a violent anti-Left movement. Fueled by street aggression. Cadre aggression.

Unlike the CPI(M), which managed to stay coherent despite electoral collapse, the TMC’s glue was almost always access. Power. Patronage. Local dominance. Control over resources. That model works fine when you are unbeatable. But the moment vulnerability shows, the whole structure starts to break apart fast. That’s why every political setback causes such disproportionate panic inside the Trinamool ecosystem.

Leaders who got into politics through networks, not pure ideology, naturally look for safer bets when the power gets shaky. That’s what’s happening now. The turbulence reflects this structural weakness. The party isn't collapsing in a single night. But for the first time since it began, it looks genuinely vulnerable. Not just because of the opposition. But because of itself.