New Delhi, September 19, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
The Trinamool Congress, built by Mamata Banerjee after years of opposition to the Left Front in West Bengal, went on to dominate state politics, but its subsequent decline has brought renewed scrutiny of the party’s leadership, governance and internal organisation.
The party’s 2026 Assembly election performance marked a sharp reversal from its earlier dominance. The Trinamool Congress won 80 of the 294 Assembly seats, while the BJP secured 207 seats, according to election results.
The source material attributes part of the TMC’s difficulties to allegations of corruption, internal rivalry and organisational disorder. One of the issues that came to the fore during Banerjee’s tenure was “cut money”, a term used for alleged payments extracted from beneficiaries of government schemes or people seeking various public services.
In June 2019, Banerjee herself publicly criticised the practice while addressing civic body leaders in Kolkata. She alleged that some local representatives had even taken a “cut” from money allocated by her government to assist low-income families with cremation expenses.
The TMC also faced allegations relating to cattle and coal smuggling and alleged irregularities in teacher recruitment. The source material says claims in these cases pointed towards the involvement of several senior party leaders. Such allegations and cases have been politically contested and should not be treated as established wrongdoing without specific findings by competent authorities.
At the organisational level, differences were increasingly reported between camps seen as aligned with Banerjee and those supporting her nephew and party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
The reported differences became particularly visible around questions of candidate selection and the role of political consultancy groups. The source material says Abhishek Banerjee was associated with efforts to give younger leaders a larger organisational role, while some senior leaders were concerned about the influence of professional political consultants and young recruits.
These tensions remained within the organisation even as the party continued to govern West Bengal. The 2026 Assembly election defeat, however, brought the internal disagreements into sharper focus.
The source also raises questions about Banerjee’s own role in the party’s organisational decline. At 71, she has faced speculation about a possible eventual transfer of greater responsibility to Abhishek Banerjee, although the source does not establish a formal succession plan.
The developments have since gone beyond an electoral setback. On September 17, the Election Commission issued an interim order preventing rival TMC factions from using the party’s original name and reserved symbol in upcoming West Bengal bypolls. The commission subsequently allotted separate names and symbols to the competing groups.
The developments underline the extent of the organisational dispute facing a party that once emerged as the principal force challenging the Left Front’s long rule in West Bengal.
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