Mamata Banerjee retains TMC chairmanship amid challenge

A major internal revolt has erupted within West Bengal's Trinamool Congress (TMC), with a faction of rebel lawmakers declaring the removal of party supremo Mamata Banerjee from her leadership position. The challenge to her authority unfolded on Monday, June 22, shortly after the state's new BJP government presented its first budget in the legislative assembly.

Led by Ritabrata Banerjee, the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, the dissident group convened a special session at a hotel in Kolkata's New Town. They announced they had removed Mamata Banerjee as the party's founder-chairperson and ousted her nephew, MP Abhishek Banerjee, from his post as national general secretary. The faction claimed the support of approximately 60 TMC legislators and 70 former councillors of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

The rebels cited a constitutional crisis within the party, arguing that the TMC's national working committee had not been reconstituted as required every three years, with its last term having expired in February. They subsequently dissolved the existing committee and formed a new 30-member national executive. The group elected veteran MLA Arup Roy as the new...