Akhruzzaman, a legislator and chief whip associated with Ritabrata Banerjee’s camp, said the DTC wanted a united political fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party but would not enter an alliance that included Mamata Banerjee. He appealed to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leader Sonia Gandhi to consider the demand.
“If the coalition leadership removes her, Democratic Trinamool Congress is ready to join and strengthen the hands of the alliance,” Akhruzzaman said, setting out the faction’s position as Opposition parties intensify their campaign over the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
The proposal places the Congress and its allies before a demand arising directly from West Bengal’s fractured Trinamool politics. Mamata Banerjee participated in an INDIA bloc meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday, alongside Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and leaders of several Opposition parties, where the grouping agreed on joint protests over electoral-roll revision and other election-related issues.
Akhruzzaman accused Mamata Banerjee’s faction of acting in ways that benefited the BJP, including through absences or walkouts during important parliamentary business. He also alleged that she had undermined Opposition unity during the 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign. Those assertions are political allegations by the DTC leader and have not been established independently.
He argued that the alliance should choose between retaining Mamata Banerjee and accepting the DTC. Akhruzzaman said his faction wanted to fight the BJP collectively and claimed Mamata Banerjee could again distance herself from the Opposition grouping when politically advantageous.
The intervention follows a major rupture in the Trinamool Congress after the 2026 West Bengal Assembly election. Ritabrata Banerjee emerged as the principal figure in a rebel legislative camp that challenged Mamata Banerjee’s authority, while competing groups asserted claims over the party organisation, name and election symbol.
The split became public in June, when 58 of the Trinamool Congress’s 80 MLAs backed Ritabrata Banerjee as leader of the legislature party. The Speaker recognised him as Leader of the Opposition, while Akhruzzaman became chief whip of the rebel bloc. The faction later named senior MLA Arup Roy as its chairperson as it developed a parallel organisational structure.
Mamata Banerjee’s camp has rejected the rival faction’s claim to the original party identity and has pursued the dispute before the Election Commission and the courts. After the poll panel imposed interim names and symbols in September, she challenged the decision and said her group would continue to claim the organisation she founded and led.
The rival claims remain unresolved pending the Election Commission’s formal final determination.
The dispute subsequently reached the Election Commission, which temporarily froze the All India Trinamool Congress name and its Flowers and Grass symbol while the rival claims are examined. For by-elections, the faction associated with Ritabrata Banerjee was allotted the name Democratic Trinamool Congress and the envelope symbol, while Mamata Banerjee’s group received a separate interim name and symbol.
The Supreme Court has directed the Election Commission to decide the dispute over the Trinamool name and symbol within three months. The court’s direction has put a timetable around a contest that has implications for the political identity and organisational assets claimed by the rival camps.
The DTC’s approach to the INDIA bloc also comes as Opposition parties seek greater coordination over the electoral-roll controversy. At Wednesday’s meeting, the alliance announced programmes including marches and demonstrations, with Kharge calling for greater transparency in additions, deletions and corrections to electoral rolls.
Mamata Banerjee was among the prominent participants at that meeting and backed the alliance’s campaign against the Election Commission’s handling of electoral issues. Her continued participation makes the DTC condition politically significant, although there has been no indication from the Congress leadership that the alliance is considering her exclusion.
