Major organisational changes in TMC ahead of 2026 West Bengal assembly polls
The leadership change across 10 districts on Thursday was the latest in a series of such changes coinciding with the BJP’s appointment of Bhupender Yadav as the poll in-charge
Ahead of the 2026 assembly polls in West Bengal, the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has made major organisational changes at the district level over the past month.
The leadership change across 10 districts on Thursday was the latest in a series of such changes. It coincided with the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s appointment of Union minister Bhupender Yadav, an Other Backward Class (OBC) leader, as the in-charge of the 2026 polls and former Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb as the co-in-charge.
The TMC swept back to power in 2021 for the third time, winning 215 out of 294 assembly seats. The BJP managed just 74 seats, even as it hoped to wrest power after registering its best Lok Sabha poll performance in the state in 2019 when it won 18 of Bengal’s 42 constituencies. The Lok Sabha tally dropped to 12 in the 2024 national polls.
“The leadership in at least 22 [of 23] organisational districts was changed in the past month, including [of] 10...on Thursday. Changes were made not only in the districts’ mother committee but also in the youth committee, women’s , and trade union wings,” said a TMC leader.
On Thursday, leadership changes were made in Kanthi, Tamluk, Dum Dum-Barrackpore, Ghatal, Midnapore, Purulia, Bongaon, Barasat, Jhargram, and West Burdwan. This came a week after similar changes in Jangipur, Berhampore, Bishnupur, Bankura, East Burdwan, Arambagh, Serampore, Howrah Rural, and Howrah Urban.
The changes followed TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee’s meetings with district and block-level leaders over the past few months. In August, he virtually met over 9,000 party leaders and functionaries.
The party has set up core committees in places such as Darjeeling, Birbhum, and North Kolkata, instead of having district presidents.
The TMC formed a core committee to look after organisational tasks in Birbhum after the district president, Anubrata Mondal, was arrested in 2022 for alleged cattle smuggling. This year, the TMC removed Mondal from the post and made him a member of the core committee. He was later elevated to the post of the committee’s convenor. Kajal Sheikh, Mondal’s rival, was included in the committee.
