Abhijit Majumdar has resigned as Trinamool Congress chief in Assam, accusing the Mamata Banerjee-led party of narrowing its political focus to the Muslim community in Assam and West Bengal, in a sharp escalation of the internal turbulence that has followed the party’s heavy defeat in the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections.
Majumdar sent his resignation to Banerjee by email on Friday, saying he could no longer continue in an organisation whose public image in Assam had, in his view, become tied to what he described as minority-centric politics. He alleged that the same approach had shaped the party’s strategy in West Bengal, where Trinamool lost power after 15 years and was reduced to a weakened opposition force.
His departure carries significance beyond Assam, where Trinamool has struggled to build a durable organisation despite repeated attempts to expand in the north-east. The resignation gives the party’s critics another opening to argue that its national ambitions have weakened after the West Bengal result, while also exposing ideological tensions inside a formation built around Banerjee’s personal authority and a broad welfare-based electoral appeal.
The Trinamool Congress has not issued a detailed rebuttal to Majumdar’s charge. Party leaders in Bengal have, however, maintained through the post-poll phase that the organisation remains committed to secular politics and welfare delivery across communities. The accusation from its Assam unit chief places fresh pressure on the leadership to address concerns from state-level functionaries who see the party’s appeal outside Bengal as limited by its post-election image.
Majumdar’s exit follows a series of resignations and organisational withdrawals after the May 4 results in West Bengal. The Bharatiya Janata Party won 207 of the 293 declared seats, while Trinamool was pushed down to 80 seats. A later repoll in Falta further strengthened the BJP’s position, adding to the pressure on Trinamool as it attempted to regroup after one of the most consequential defeats in its history.
The loss was made more damaging by Banerjee’s own defeat in Bhabanipur, a constituency closely identified with her political career. Suvendu Adhikari defeated her by 15,105 votes, turning a symbolic Trinamool bastion into a marker of the wider shift in Bengal politics. The result also deepened questions about campaign strategy, anti-incumbency, allegations of corruption, local organisational fatigue and the BJP’s stronger ground mobilisation.
Senior Trinamool figure Santanu Sen had earlier stepped down as national spokesperson, citing unease over corruption-related controversies and the handling of the RG Kar rape-murder case among the issues that had made it difficult for him to defend the party publicly. Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar also quit key organisational responsibilities, alleging that the party had failed to protect her from misconduct and verbal abuse by a senior colleague.
The unrest has extended to local bodies. Pabitra Kar, Trinamool’s defeated Nandigram candidate, and his wife Shiuli Kar withdrew from active politics and resigned from local posts after the election. Their exit came amid reports of functionaries stepping down across parts of East Midnapore, underlining how the shock of defeat has moved from the state leadership to the grassroots structure.
For Trinamool, the Assam resignation highlights a separate but connected challenge: the difficulty of presenting itself as a credible pan-regional alternative after losing the state that formed the centre of its power. The party had used Bengal’s welfare architecture, including cash support schemes for women and localised outreach networks, as evidence of a governance model that could travel beyond the state. The election result has weakened that argument and given dissenters room to question the party’s political direction.
Assam remains a particularly difficult terrain. The BJP continues to dominate the state’s politics, while opposition space is fragmented among Congress, regional formations and parties with specific community bases. Trinamool’s effort to grow there depended on attracting leaders willing to challenge established structures. Majumdar’s resignation therefore damages not only the party’s public perception but also its organisational continuity in a state where it lacked deep roots.
