New Delhi, August 25, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
The battle over who represents the “real Trinamool” in West Bengal is set to enter another significant phase on August 28, when rival factions of the party’s student wing, Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad (TMCP), plan to hold separate Foundation Day programmes in Kolkata.
The political contest follows the emergence of two distinct factions within the West Bengal Assembly after the May election results, with both sides claiming legitimacy and seeking to establish themselves as the true inheritors of the Trinamool Congress legacy.
The faction led by Ritabrata Banerjee, which reportedly has the backing of nearly 60 MLAs, has secured institutional recognition after Banerjee was recognised as the Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly.
The rival camp, centred around Trinamool Congress founder-chairperson Mamata Banerjee and described as the “Kalighat faction”, draws its strength from her personal popularity and the party’s history under her leadership.
The competing claims were brought onto the streets on July 21, observed as Martyrs’ Day by the Trinamool Congress. Mamata Banerjee held her traditional rally, commemorating the 1993 police firing on Youth Congress activists when she was leading the organisation.
The rival faction organised a parallel rally at Mayo Road, around three kilometres from Mamata Banerjee’s gathering near the Birla Planetarium. Both events reportedly attracted substantial crowds, turning the occasion into a public demonstration of the competing factions’ organisational strength.
The August 28 TMCP Foundation Day programmes are expected to provide another test of that strength. The student organisation is particularly significant because of its influence among young political activists and its role in college and university unions.
The Kalighat faction maintains that Assembly numbers cannot erase the historical and emotional legitimacy associated with Mamata Banerjee, whose political journey from leading protests against the Left Front culminated in the Trinamool Congress coming to power in West Bengal in 2011.
Her highly centralised style of leadership, with key decisions often associated with her residence in Kalighat, has long been reflected in the political description that there was effectively “one post” in the Trinamool, with other leaders serving as “lampposts” in her reflected political influence.
The Ritabrata Banerjee faction, meanwhile, projects itself as the organisational successor to the party machinery, drawing support from leaders such as Firhad Hakim, Madan Mitra, Anubrata Mondal and Javed Khan, among others. The camp argues that its numerical strength and ability to mobilise supporters give it institutional weight.
The unfolding contest has drawn comparisons with the Shiv Sena split in Maharashtra, where the question of which faction represented the original party was ultimately decided through institutional and legal processes.
In West Bengal, too, the question of legitimacy could eventually move beyond competing rallies and Assembly numbers. For now, however, control over TMCP could prove crucial for both factions as they seek to demonstrate their influence among young supporters and claim the mantle of the “real Trinamool”.
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