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Trinamool Congress MLAs' Protest and Internal Speculation

Thursday, May 21, 2026
5 min read
Trinamool Congress MLAs' Protest and Internal Speculation

The party seemed fractured.

When nearly half of the Trinamool Congress MLAs skipped the first big protest Wednesday, it immediately sparked serious chatter. People were talking about the possibility of the party simply falling apart. This all happened right after they took a really humiliating hit in the 2026 West Bengal Assembly polls, after ruling for fifteen years.

The MLAs skipped the demonstration a day after some internal talks reportedly happened about needing to get back into street politics.

Some of the group did manage to organize something. A few TMC MLAs set up a sit-in near the Ambedkar statue on the assembly grounds. They were protesting the "post-poll violence" and the eviction drives happening across the state.

It was the first time, it turned out, that the party coordinated an agitation like this after shifting from being the ruling party to the opposition. The focus was on the violence, the evictions, the bulldozers used to tear down buildings.

The names floating around the protest included Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, Nayana Banerjee, Kunal Ghosh, and Ritabrata Banerjee.

But the numbers were telling. Out of eighty MLAs, only thirty-five actually showed up. That absence fueled speculation in political circles. They wondered how the organization could manage to regroup when it was trying to heal after such an electoral setback.

Political observers saw something there. Not just the low turnout. They saw the message being sent. How can a party try to rebuild its confidence when it’s just sitting in closed-door meetings?

Senior MLA Sovandeb Chattopadhyay tried to calm things down. He dismissed the rumors of internal discord. He said the absence wasn't about disaGreement. It was about logistics. About the MLAs being tied up dealing with workers in areas hit by violence.

"Around thirty-five MLAs were there today," he told PTI. "Many couldn’t make it because they were busy in areas affected by post-poll violence. And the event was called with just a day's notice. That was a problem for MLAs living far away to show up."

Yet, the optics of the protest still mattered. It happened just after a crucial meeting at Kalighat. Party sources said some legislators had voiced concerns there. They felt the TMC couldn't just fix things with strategy sessions. They needed to reconnect with the people, mobilization on the ground.

The discussions at Kalighat reflected those worries about the leadership's approach post-poll.

Mass movements. That’s always been the TMC’s playbook. From the Singur and Nandigram agitation to fighting the Left Front, they always relied on getting out there. It’s how they build their narrative. How they connect with voters. That’s the history of the party.

Written by Gree News Team — Senior Editorial Board

Gree News Team covers international news and global affairs at Gree News. Our collective of senior editors is dedicated to providing independent, accurate, and responsible journalism for a global audience.

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