One Foundation Day, Two Claims: TMC’s Internal Battle Reaches the High Court

The Trinamool Congress’s internal conflict is now moving into another symbolic arena: the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad’s (TMCP) foundation day on August 28. Two rival camps associated with the same party are seeking to organise programmes at the traditional venue near the Mahatma Gandhi statue on Mayo Road in central Kolkata, turning what is normally a major annual event for the student wing into a fresh test of organisational control. The dispute has already reached the Calcutta High Court, with questions over police permission and which faction, if either, will be allowed to use the venue.

The first legal move came from the Mamata Banerjee-led faction, which approached the High Court after, according to its petition, receiving no response from Kolkata Police to repeated requests for permission. Its counsel told the court that applications had been submitted on July 27, August 3 and August 7. The faction wants to hold the August 28 programme at Mayo Road, where the TMCP has traditionally observed its foundation day. Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya admitted the petition and listed it for hearing.

The situation became more complex when the Ritabrata Banerjee-led camp also sought permission for a programme at the same location. Reports say the rival faction subsequently approached the High Court after failing to obtain police clearance, seeking an urgent hearing. However, on August 19, the court declined to entertain that plea on an urgent basis and directed that the matter be taken up through the regular process. This is an important distinction: the claim that the court simply granted an urgent hearing to “both Trinamools” would be misleading. The two factions have approached the court, but the treatment of their pleas has not been identical.

The importance of the dispute goes beyond a venue. TMCP was founded in 1998 and August 28 has traditionally been observed as its foundation day, with the Mayo Road gathering becoming one of the student wing’s most recognisable annual political events. The programme has also traditionally drawn senior Trinamool leaders, making the venue itself part of the party’s political symbolism. Whoever is able to organise the event there could present it as evidence of organisational continuity and legitimacy at a moment when the parent party itself is deeply divided.

That division has been particularly visible since the 2026 West Bengal Assembly election setback, with rival groups emerging around the Mamata Banerjee camp, the Ritabrata Banerjee-led rebel camp and another bloc that has moved towards the newly formed NCPI, according to multiple reports. The July 21 Martyrs’ Day programmes already revealed the split: different camps held separate political gatherings rather than a single unified Trinamool event. The TMCP foundation day now threatens to reproduce that fragmentation at the level of the party’s student organisation.

The choice of Mayo Road therefore carries unusual weight. If both factions are after the same traditional location, the question is no longer merely whether a rally can be held, but who gets to claim  Trinamool’s institutional legacy in public view. At the same time, permission for a political gathering remains an administrative and law-and-order question, meaning the final outcome cannot simply be interpreted as a judicial endorsement of either faction.

A larger concern for Bengal politics also looms. The conflict shows how a party’s internal contest for recognition can spill into ordinary organisational rituals, public spaces and even court proceedings. A foundation day is supposed to reinforce identity and continuity; this year, the TMCP event could instead become another public demonstration of how contested that identity has become.

With August 28 approaching, the central question is increasingly difficult to avoid: will Bengal see one TMCP foundation day, competing programmes by rival camps, or a judicially mediated arrangement over the traditional venue? Whatever the final outcome, the dispute offers a revealing snapshot of a Trinamool Congress in which the battle for political space is increasingly becoming a battle over symbols, institutions and the right to speak in the party’s name.