NEW DELHI: Ritabrata Banerjee, who was accepted as leader of Opposition Trinamul Congress, refused to be the party’s Eknath Shinde.
Once Left’s blue-eyed boy, he was in 2018 welcomed into the Trinamool Congress fold. Today, he stands at the centre of a rebellion that could see TMC founder Mamata Banerjee lose control of her party. All about Ritabrata, who could end up being Bengal’s Eknath Shinde.
Having started out as a student activist in the 1990s, Ritabarata Banerjee is now at forefront on the rebellion splitting apart the TMC. But he insisted on Wednesday that Mamata continues to be his leader.
“There is growing dissatisfaction among many TMC leaders and legislators. The developments indicate that the party is heading towards a split, similar to what happened in Maharashtra,” BJP MLA Tapas Roy said while commenting on what is being described as the biggest crisis to hit the Trinamool Congress since it was founded by Mamata Banerjee in 1998. At the centre of the crisis is Ritabrata Banerjee, a former blue-eyed boy of the Left Front.
Ritabrata was expelled from CPI(M) in 2017 for anti-party activities and joined the TMC. Now, he has been expelled from the party by the TMC brass for alleged anti-party activities.
On Wednesday, Ritabrata reached the West Bengal Assembly claiming support from at least 60 of the TMC’s 80 MLAs. The rebel MLAs are demanding that Ritabrata be made the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the West Bengal Assembly. If the claim holds, the rebel faction might have enough numbers to tide over the anti-defection law, and stake a claim to the TMC and its symbol. But Ritabrata says he won’t do it.
The situation has drawn comparisons with the 2022 rebellion in the Shiv Sena, when more than 40 legislators led by Eknath Shinde broke away from Uddhav Thackeray. The unified Shiv Sena had 55 MLAs back then. Ritabrata, who, along with another expelled MLA, Sandipan Saha, is leading the TMC rebellion, is being referred to as Bengal’s Eknath Shinde. The Maharashtra leader is now heading the official Shiv Sena and has the party’s bow and arrow election symbol.
Ritabrata Banerjee’s political journey has been anything but conventional. He began his career in the Left movement and rose rapidly through the ranks, from a student activist in the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) to a Rajya Sabha MP representing the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Once regarded as the party’s blue-eyed boy, Ritabrata’s standing within the Left eventually declined, culminating in his expulsion in 2017.
His political fortunes revived soon after he joined the All India Trinamool Congress. Within the TMC, he again climbed the ranks, first heading the party’s trade union wing and later being nominated for a Rajya Sabha berth.
In 2026, Ritabrata survived the BJP wave that swept through the West Bengal Assembly elections by winning the Uluberia Purba constituency.
Now, analysts say he appears to be attempting within the TMC what Shinde achieved in Maharashtra—mobilising a large section of legislators against the party leadership and threatening a split in one of Bengal’s most dominant political forces.
