- In full:
- All India Trinamool Congress
- Date:
- January 1, 1998 - present
- Related People:
- Mamata Banerjee
- On the Web:
- Official Site of All India Trinamool Congress (Nov. 08, 2026)
Trinamool Congress
Who founded the Trinamool Congress?
What is the ideology of the Trinamool Congress?
Is the Trinamool Congress the same as the Congress Party?
Trinamool Congress, political party in India formed by Mamata Banerjee in 1998 and active primarily in her home state of West Bengal, where it held power from 2011–26. It also has a presence in northeastern states, such as Meghalaya and Tripura, and has fielded candidates in elections in Goa. The party’s official but less commonly used name is All India Trinamool Congress (“All India Grassroots Congress”), and it uses the abbreviations AITC and TMC. It is known for its championing of secularism and social equality. Its election symbol, sketched by Banerjee, is two flowers on the same stem (representing Hindu-Muslim unity) arising from blades of grass.
Inception and initial years
The Trinamool Congress was established on January 1, 1998, as a breakaway group of the Indian National Congress (Congress Party), of which Banerjee had been a member and which, she felt, did not adequately represent the interests of West Bengal. The TMC was founded with the intention of challenging the incumbent government headed by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), abbreviated to CPI(M). The CPI(M)-led Left Front had dominated West Bengal’s political landscape for decades, holding power since 1977.
The TMC initially joined the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It made its electoral debut in the general election to the Lok Sabha (lower house of the Indian Parliament) in 1998, winning seven seats from West Bengal. It improved its results by one in the Lok Sabha election held the following year, winning eight seats. Banerjee was made minister of railways in Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government. She held the post till 2001, when the TMC exited the NDA to protest the government’s failure to take action against Defense Minister George Fernandes after a media sting operation uncovered corruption in defense deals. The TMC returned to the NDA some months later, and Banerjee was given charge of the coal and mines ministry in 2004.
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The TMC won the municipal elections in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 2000. In the 2001 state election in West Bengal, the TMC allied with the Congress Party, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, and the Gorkha National Liberation Front and contributed 60 seats to the alliance’s total of 89 seats out of 294. As a result, the TMC became the primary opposition party while the Left Front formed the government again, with 196 seats. However, the TMC suffered in subsequent elections: It won just two seats in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls, lost the 2005 municipal election in Kolkata, and managed 30 seats in the 2006 West Bengal election, after which it exited the NDA.
Poriborton: Political change in West Bengal
The Singur and Nandigram effect
The TMC’s waning political star was revived by its involvement in two significant controversies over land acquisition in West Bengal. In 2006 the party led a protest movement by farmers and environmentalists in Singur, where the Left Front government had acquired agricultural land for a proposed plant to manufacture the Tata Group’s new Nano car. A similar protest took place in Nandigram, where the establishment of a planned chemical plant would mean the eviction of thousands of residents from their homes. In March 2007 police fired on protesters, killing 14, and at least 70 were injured. Banerjee was at the forefront of both movements, which succeeded in their goals: Tata relocated its Nano project to Gujarat, and the chemical plant plan at Nandigram was scrapped.
Rise to power
The political consequences of the Nandigram and Singur movements were transformative. The TMC, now part of the Congress Party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), won 19 seats from West Bengal in the 2009 Lok Sabha election. Banerjee was given charge of the railways ministry in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s cabinet. The party also swept the 2010 municipal election in Kolkata, unseating the CPI(M). The next year was an electoral turning point for the party: It ousted the Left Front from power in the West Bengal election of 2011, ending the coalition’s 34 years of rule in the state by promising poriborton, or change. The TMC-Congress alliance won 227 seats, of which the TMC won 184—well beyond the 147 seats it needed for a simple majority, meaning that it could have formed the government without its allies. Banerjee resigned as a minister in the national government and was sworn in as chief minister of West Bengal.
Dominance at the state level
The TMC slogan—“Maa, mati, manush”—translates as “Mother, land, people.”
In 2012 the Trinamool Congress left the UPA after opposing the government’s hike of the price of diesel and decision to allow foreign direct investment in retail. The party contested subsequent elections alone and improved its previous numbers, winning 34 seats in the Lok Sabha election of 2014 and 211 seats in the West Bengal election of 2016. The 2019 Lok Sabha election was something of a setback, as the TMC lost several seats from West Bengal to the BJP even though it was still the biggest party in the state. The TMC reclaimed its lost political ground in the hotly contested West Bengal election of 2021, winning 213 seats. Several TMC members had transferred to the BJP ahead of the polls; in the aftermath of the BJP’s resounding defeat, many rejoined the TMC. Banerjee retained her post as chief minister in each government formation.
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In 2023 the TMC partnered with the Congress Party and others in the opposition to form the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, known as the INDIA bloc, ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election. However, the TMC opted to contest the polls independently and won 29 seats from West Bengal. In the 2026 state elections in India, the TMC was reduced to 80 seats, ending its 15-year rule. The BJP, which has significantly expanded its presence in the state in recent years, formed the government.
Split in the party
In June 2026 TMC expelled Ritabrata Banerjee, one of the 80 party members who had won the 2026 election, after he broke away from Mamata Banerjee’s leadership. He was joined by 58 TMC legislators and was recognized by the West Bengal governor as leader of the opposition. The rebel faction later voted to remove Mamata Banerjee as TMC chief. She subsequently submitted particulars to the Election Commission of India affirming her position as chairperson of the party. The fracturing of the party was also reflected at the national level, with 20 parliamentarians quitting the TMC and merging with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India, a registered party awaiting official recognition.
Controversies
The TMC’s credibility was damaged when a Ponzi scheme run by the Saradha Group was uncovered in 2013. Several TMC leaders, including Suvendu Adhikari, were directly linked to the group, holding executive positions such as CEO, brand ambassador, and union head. In 2014–16 a sting operation conducted by a journalist from Narada News filmed several TMC members accepting cash in exchange for promoting business interests. Adhikari and some others left the TMC and joined the BJP in 2020, making the switch public at a rally held by Amit Shah, top BJP leader and union minister of home affairs.
Banerjee’s government was also criticized for its response to some widely publicized sexual assault cases. In particular, the 2024 rape and murder of a female doctor in the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital caused outrage and protests against the government’s alleged cover-up of the crime and its perceived failure to ensure the safety of women.