Kolkata: The political challenges confronting former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee intensified on Saturday as the Trinamool Congress state unit president, Chandrima Bhattacharya, resigned from all party positions. The high-profile resignation comes barely a month after Bhattacharya was entrusted with leading the state organisation following the party’s severe debacle in the recent West Bengal Assembly elections. In a formal communication addressed directly to the TMC chairperson, Bhattacharya announced her immediate withdrawal from all organizational responsibilities, delivering another significant blow to the party’s collapsing administrative structure.
In her resignation letter, Bhattacharya explicitly withdrew herself as the authorized representative of the Trinamool Congress before the Election Commission of India. She also relinquished her administrative role as the chief signatory for all financial and bank-related operations of the party and its allied wings. Her exit comes amidst an escalating organizational revolt within the party, following the recent state election where the Bharatiya Janata Party secured a historic mandate, winning 208 seats and bringing an end to the TMC’s 15-year rule. The political crisis has been further compounded by deep internal fissures, with a breakaway faction of 58 rebel legislators led by Ritabrata Banerjee taking physical control of the party headquarters in Kolkata and securing formal recognition as the principal opposition camp from the Assembly Speaker.
Bhattacharya, a veteran leader who previously served as a minister managing key portfolios like Finance and Health under the Mamata Banerjee administration, had been appointed state president on June 5 to replace Subrata Bakshi. Her sudden departure follows her recent electoral defeat in the Dum Dum Uttar constituency, where she lost to the BJP’s Sourav Sikdar. The rapid fragmentation of the Trinamool Congress’s parliamentary and legislative units has drawn stark parallels to historical party splits in other states, leaving the former chief minister increasingly isolated as prominent loyalists step down and major factions shift allegiance to the newly emerging rebel leadership.
