Every July 21, the Trinamool Congress turns its Shaheed Diwas rally into a show of strength in Kolkata, but this year's gathering looks nothing like it used to. Twenty-eight years after the party's founding, the Trinamool Congress has split into three rival camps for the first time, and each is staking its own claim to the party's legacy with a separate event.
A party cut into three
The first crack appeared within weeks of the Trinamool Congress losing the assembly election in May. Leader of Opposition Ritabrata Banerjee took more than 60 of the party's 80 MLAs with him to form a breakaway group, calling it the "real TMC." A second split followed when 20 of the party's 29 Lok Sabha MPs crossed over to a lesser known outfit, the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI). The crisis deepened further when four of the party's Rajya Sabha MPs resigned, three of whom later joined the BJP.
The "Kalighat Trinamool" tag
Amid this churn, the original faction led by Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee has come to be known in political circles as "Kalighat Trinamool." The nickname traces back to the party founder's residence in Kalighat, in south Kolkata, long seen as the nerve centre of the organisation's politics.
Police invoke Section 163
The fallout from Trinamool's 15-year-old state government coming to an end has reshaped Bengal's political landscape, and it has also changed how Shaheed Diwas is being observed this year. For close to two decades, Mamata Banerjee held her annual rally on Central Avenue in central Kolkata, but no event will take place there this time. Kolkata Police Commissioner and Executive Magistrate Ajoy Nanda has imposed prohibitory orders across several parts of central Kolkata, including Central Avenue. The restriction was issued under Section 163, a provision of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023. The order took effect on July 2 and will remain in force until August 30. Police cited intelligence inputs warning that political gatherings in these areas could trigger violence and disturb law and order.
High Court steps in
The Mamata faction challenged the restriction, and the Calcutta High Court has since given it limited relief. Justice Saugata Bhattacharya ruled that the group may hold its Shaheed Diwas event near Birla Planetarium in central Kolkata between noon and 3 pm, capped at 2,500 people. The court also directed police to put tight security arrangements in place for the gathering.
Three more rallies on the same day
Ritabrata Banerjee's faction will hold its own event the same day at Mayo Road, in front of the statue of Mahatma Gandhi. The state Congress, meanwhile, will gather near Shaheed Minar in the city. The NCPI has also announced that it will observe Shaheed Diwas, though it is yet to finalise a venue. For the first time, West Bengal will see four separate events on a single day, each claiming a piece of the Trinamool Congress's legacy.
