Explainer: Big question amid Mamata Banerjee’s disintegrating party, who will get TMC’s Rs 219.3538 crore?

TMC Financial Assets: As the Trinamool Congress is disintegrating in West Bengal, it is not only the political capital that she has built over four decades that is at stake for Mamata Banerjee. Rather, that capital is also involved in legal complications which the economic world knows about. The party, its symbols and most importantly the capital the party has accumulated after being in power in Bengal for 15 years. Now a question mark is hanging over him too.

Trinamool Congress had reported total earnings of Rs 219.3538 crore in its income-tax return for the 2024-25 financial year, filed on October 13, 2025. In a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on May 27 this year, Trinamool was the second highest earner after Telugu Desam Party among the 36 regional parties analyzed by the organisation.

Rs 184.08 crore received from donations last year

Last year, Trinamool had received Rs 184.08 crore as donations, which was the highest among all regional parties. Another Rs 33.685 crore was earned as interest on fixed deposits. TMC had earned Rs 646.293 crore in the 2023-24 financial year. Until the Supreme Court declared electoral bonds illegal, Mamata Banerjee’s party had cashed in Rs 1,609.5 crore between April 2019 and January 2024, the second highest among all political parties.

According to the report of The Telegraph, a Trinamool MLA loyal to Mamata said that this is not the time to talk on these issues. everything is changing. It is true that they (rebel MLAs and MPs) have numerical strength. But I don’t think even the rebels know exactly what their next step will be.

56 TMC MLAs with Ritabrata Banerjee

The numerical strength in the Bengal Assembly is clear. Of the 80 Trinamool MLAs who won the recently concluded assembly elections, two were expelled and 56 others have supported ousted Trinamool MLA Ritabrata Banerjee for leading the opposition. Trinamool is falling apart in Parliament. While Trinamool had 13 MPs in the Rajya Sabha, the party has lost three MPs and now its number has come down to 10. On Thursday, following the footsteps of Sukhendu Shekhar Ray and Sushmita Dev, Prakash Chik Badaik also resigned.

According to the information coming out so far, 19 out of 28 Lok Sabha members of Trinamool have separated from the party and formed a separate group. There is no information available on the further strategy from the leaders of the two rebel groups in Calcutta and Delhi, Ritabrata Banerjee and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar.

Mamta Banerjee followed the path of Indira Gandhi

Twice in her political journey, in 1969 and 1978, Indira Gandhi had walked on the same path that Mamata Banerjee is on today. After the split of the Congress into the Congress (O) and the Indian National Congress in 1969 (the latter being led by Indira Gandhi), the election symbol of two oxen carrying a yoke, used by the party in the elections held between 1952 and 1969, went to the Congress (O).

A senior Congress leader said they not only lost the election symbol but also the office, library and other properties at 7 Jantar Mantar Road. After getting the new election symbol of calf and cow, Indira returned with a landslide victory in the 1971 elections.

Indira was expelled from the party in 1978

On January 1, 1978, Kasu Brahmananda Reddy, who was serving as Union Home Minister in the Indira cabinet, expelled Indira Gandhi from the party. He was the same person who drafted and signed the declaration of emergency four years later. Reddy wrote to the Election Commission that I am legally and constitutionally the President of the Indian National Congress and if the ‘Indian National Congress’ If any organization is formed by name then it is illegal and unconstitutional.

When the symbol was snatched from Indira Gandhi

A Congress leader from Bengal (who has now died) had then said that we can no longer bear the burden of Indira Gandhi. Indira loyalists in the Congress collected signatures of about 700 AICC members from across the country. A convention was held at Mavalankar Hall in New Delhi where Indira announced her new party. The cost of the new party was to lose the support of 76 out of 153 MPs in the Lok Sabha. Over the objection of Reddy’s group, the Election Commission has banned the issue of ‘cow and calf’. The symbol was frozen, due to which Indira Gandhi no longer had the party symbol.

Rebel group did not reach EC for symbol

No group that has broken away from Trinamool has yet approached the Election Commission regarding the symbol. The Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968 empowers the Election Commission to decide on the claims of rival factions in case of a split in a political party. Renovation work is going on in the old office of Trinamool in Topsia near Eastern Metropolitan Bypass in East Kolkata. At present, Trinamool’s temporary office on Canal South Road was taken on rent three years ago. The owner of this building has asked TMC to vacate the place.

Rebel TMC MLAs handing over the letter of support in the name of Ritabrata Banerjee to the Speaker for Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly.

The only legal challenge so far after the breakup of Trinamool has been made by Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, who was Mamata’s choice as the leader of the opposition in the 294-member Bengal Assembly. Chattopadhyay has approached the Calcutta High Court challenging the rebel group’s decision to make Ritabrata Banerjee the leader of the opposition.

What is the rule of defection without merger?

Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, which is Anti-defection law Is also called. This law says that disqualification of a member on the ground of defection does not apply in case of merger with another political party. Senior Supreme Court lawyer and Congress Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha said that the spirit of the Tenth Schedule has ended.

Also read: Last dent in Mamata Banerjee’s fort! Who is Kalyan Banerjee, who has now shown his eyes to the TMC chief?

Tankha said that disunity in the parliamentary or legislative party is being considered as disunity in the real party. We have seen this in Goa, Maharashtra and some other states. When the Maharashtra issue (split between Shiv Sena and NCP) came up, if the Supreme Court had stayed the order on the very first day, the picture of Maharashtra would have been different. Some decisions have completely destroyed moral values ​​in politics.