Mamata Banerjee’s call for a broad anti-BJP front in West Bengal has run into a firm rebuff from the Congress, the Left Front and CPI-ML, deepening the Trinamool Congress’s isolation after its sharp defeat in the Assembly election and the formation of the state’s first Bharatiya Janata Party government.The rejection came a day after Banerjee urged opposition parties, student groups and civil society organisations to build a united platform against the BJP, arguing that the change of government had created an urgent need for coordinated resistance. Her appeal was framed as a direct response to Suvendu Adhikari’s swearing-in as chief minister, an event that ended 15 years of TMC rule and altered the balance of power in one of the country’s most politically combative states.
CPI state secretary Md Salim dismissed the proposal in unusually strong terms, saying his party would not accept anyone it identified with criminality, extortion, corruption or communal politics. His response underlined the Left’s long-standing charge that Banerjee weakened democratic opposition in Bengal while consolidating TMC dominance after 2011.
The Congress also refused to engage with the offer. State party leaders questioned Banerjee’s appeal to “national parties” and “ultra-Left” groups, arguing that the TMC chief was attempting to reposition herself as an opposition anchor only after losing power. Their reaction reflected deep distrust built over years of political violence, defections and accusations that TMC’s expansion came at the expense of Congress and Left cadres.
Banerjee’s video message had sought to revive a wider anti-BJP plank, saying all forces opposed to the BJP should come together in Bengal and in Delhi. She said she had no ego about engaging with Left parties and was available for talks with any political organisation willing to oppose the BJP. The outreach marked a striking shift for a leader who had spent much of her career battling the CPI-led Left Front before replacing it in power in 2011.
The political calculation behind her appeal is clear. The BJP won 207 seats in the 294-member Assembly, while the TMC was reduced to 80. The Congress won only two seats and the Left Front remained marginal, but both still carry organisational memory, local networks and symbolic value in a state where ideological opposition to the BJP is fragmented. CPI-ML, though smaller, has influence among sections of activists and agrarian groups.
Yet the arithmetic of opposition unity is being outweighed by the memory of past conflicts. Left and Congress leaders view Banerjee’s overture as a defensive move after defeat rather than a principled call for unity. They argue that TMC’s years in office left little space for other opposition parties and that an alliance now would blur their attempt to rebuild independently.
The BJP has sought to exploit that divide. Adhikari, Banerjee’s former lieutenant and now her principal rival, has described her as politically irrelevant. His party is presenting the rejection of her proposal as proof that the TMC has lost both public authority and opposition credibility. BJP leaders are also positioning the new government as a break from what they describe as the coercive politics of the previous regime.
Banerjee, however, remains a formidable figure in Bengal politics despite the setback. She built the TMC into the state’s dominant political force, defeated the Left Front after 34 years in power and resisted BJP advances through successive election cycles before the 2026 reversal. Her party still holds a large vote share and a sizeable legislative presence, giving it the status of the principal opposition.
The immediate challenge for the TMC is to contain demoralisation, respond to allegations of post-poll violence and prepare for legal and political battles over the conduct of the election. Banerjee has blamed the BJP, the Election Commission and voter-list revisions for her party’s defeat, while the BJP has argued that the verdict reflected public anger against corruption, intimidation and administrative fatigue.