Despite her call for a mega anti-BJP platform, why Mamata seems to be a lonely warrior

The change is eye-catching. For a leader who had always been surrounded by loyalists, who the public derided as sycophants, May 2026 is earth-shattering. Unlike the May of 2011, 2016 and 2021, when her Trinamool Congress (TMC) blew the Opposition away with elan.

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Former West Bengal chief minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee observed the birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore on May 9 at her residence in Kolkata, but the silence was deafening, even when compared with the mega swearing-in of the state’s first Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, held just a few kilometres away, in the heart of the city.

What remains of the Mamata machinery?

It was not Mamata’s house in Kalighat only that wore the forlorn look. An identical mood was also reflected at several offices of the TMC across the state. Disbelief prevailed as workers watched the saffron celebrations on television screens and wondered: what remains of the political machine Mamata built over the past 28 years — the first 13 years (1998-2011) as an opposition party and the next 15 years (2011-2026) in power?

While one veteran leader was quoted as saying by agency reports that a section of the leadership became too arrogant, and there were an administrative paralysis and factional rivalries that hurt governance and development projects, one senior MP even went on to blame political consultant I-PAC and alleged sabotage within the organisation.

For many others, Abhishek Banerjee, nephew of Mamata and the second most powerful in the TMC, was responsible for the party’s downslide with his corporate working style.

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Political analyst Biswanath Chakraborty told news agency PTI that the TMC’s structure was heavily dependent on "uninterrupted access to power", and once that chain weakened, fragmentation was not far.

The TMC never evolved as an ideological cadre-based structure, either, unlike the Left and the BJP, and also failed to make any mark outside Bengal despite calling itself All-India TMC. Bengal and Mamata remained its only pillars.

At 71, Mamata faces a new challenge

Now, with Bengal gone, the party’s existence is virtually dependent on the supremo herself. But even she has a plethora of challenges ahead of her. At the age of 71, it would not be easy for her to overcome those as easily as she did during her heyday as an opposition leader, be it in Singur and Nandigram, or in general.

After the debacle, the TMC supremo has appealed for a major platform against the BJP. She has invited the Left, the ultra-Left and also national parties. Besides political outfits, Mamata also broadened her appeal to include student unions and NGOs that are opposed to the BJP. “Our first enemy is the BJP,” she said.

Mamata’s quest for an anti-BJP front is not new. During Lok Sabha elections in the past, she tried to cobble up an anti-National Democratic Alliance front. But they have not been successful.

In 2001, when the TMC contested its first state elections, she had tried to make a “mahajot” (grand alliance) to topple the Left and wanted the Congress and the BJP on that platform. However, it did not materialise, and the TMC was humbled after it pulled out of the NDA the same year over a corruption scam and fought the polls in alliance with the Congress.

The latest Bengal results are not the first time the TMC has been decimated. In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, Mamata was her party’s only MP in the Lok Sabha as the Left swept. In the 2006 Assembly elections, too, the TMC fared poorly as the Left Front continued its grip on power. Yet, the party saw a remarkable turnaround under Mamata’s leadership in the subsequent local, state and national elections and stormed the power centre in Kolkata in 2011.

Left, Congress not interested

But this time, she looks to be fighting a lonely battle. The state secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Mohammed Salim, made a sarcastic response when asked about Mamata’s appeal. Bengali daily Anandabazar Patrika quoted the veteran leader borrowing a quote from Tagore to say, “Jiban jakhan shukaye jaye, karunadharay esho (when life dries up, come under the stream of compassion)”.

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Another senior CPI(M) leader, Sujan Chakraborty, said while the BJP needed to be defeated, he expressed doubt over Mamata’s credibility. He alleged that the TMC chief once said that the BJP was her “natural ally”, adding that while she projected that she fights with the BJP, it was she who helped the BJP get a firm root in Bengal.

According to Chakraborty, when the opposition parties were coming together to counter the BJP, it was Mamata who created cracks in the unity.

While no reaction of the ultra-Left was known immediately (it is already facing an existential crisis after the Centre put a strong focus on its eradication), Kishenji, a top Maoist leader had once claimed that Mamata had taken the ultras’ help in Singur and Nandigram and later turned her back on them. “She is dreaming of the chief minister’s chair at the cost of people’s interest,” said that leader, who was killed in a shootout in Bengal’s Jangalmahal area months after Mamata took charge as the CM.

'Accept Rahul as INDIA bloc leader first'

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, known to be one of Mamata’s fiercest critics, also blasted her idea for a united Opposition against the BJP. The veteran Congress leader, who contested this year’s election from Bengal but lost, accused her of destroying his party and the state’s secular space. “She is seeking support because her strength has faded,” the veteran leader said, adding that Mamata is being punished for her own wrongdoings.

Chowdhury said while appealing for the joint platform, the TMC chief did not mention the Congress. He said his party would consider her request only if she accepts Rahul Gandhi as the leader of the Indian National Democratic Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), which fights the BJP on the national level.

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Mamata and Abhishek have time and again criticised Rahul’s leadership. The TMC and the Congress, two former allies, have not contested elections together in recent elections, including the 2026 battle.

Mamata, however, said while appealing for the Opposition unity that leaders of many national parties, including Congress’s Sonia Gandhi, Rahul and party president Mallikarjun Kharge, spoke to her after the election results. She also expressed her gratitude to the INDIA bloc leaders for standing by her after her defeat.

Reactions from the Left and the Congress suggest that Mamata has a herculean task in her hands to cement an anti-BJP platform, and there are reasons for that.

Mamata today carries a baggage

Mamata of 2026 carries the baggage of 15 years in power, including recruitment scams, corruption allegations, factional rivalries and resentment against the party’s local leadership in many places.

The 2026 poll verdict appears to have hurt the aura of inevitability that surrounded the party since its 2011 win.

Leaders are apprehensive that local self-governance institutions, both in urban and rural areas, may witness defections in the coming months. The party that once expanded its control over local bodies by engineering defections from rivals now fears the same would happen against it. The Left had collapsed similarly and is yet to find a revival in Bengal. Abhishek is another question for which the party has to find an answer.

While it would be premature to write off a leader like Mamata so soon, as one political analyst was quoted as saying by PTI, “This comeback challenge is qualitatively different. Age, organisational fatigue and a far more entrenched BJP presence have altered Bengal’s political landscape fundamentally.”

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Mamata’s appeal for opposition parties to unite against the BJP is vastly symbolic. The leader who rose by decimating the Left and derailing the Congress, her former party, is now keen to share space with them to tackle a larger adversary.

For Mamata (the TMC virtually means its leader), the challenge now is no longer about recapturing power, but about stopping Bengal’s once-dominant political machine from witnessing an organisational drift after its aura of inevitability crumbled.