Trinamool Congress Split Deepens! MP Mahua Moitra Attacks MP Yusuf Pathan, Tells Him To Have Spine

Trinamool Congress (TMC) is going through a really tough time as its prominant leaders and members look divide since the West Bengal Elections defeat. Recently, TMC MP Mahua Moitra targeted another TMC MP Yusuf Pathan.

Mahua Moitra accused Yusuf Pathan of backing TMC rebels and questioned the former cricketer’s loyalty towards the party and its leader Mamata Banerjee.

Taking it on Twitter (now X), Mahua Moitra said, "Our district voted you in by a huge margin. Have some shame and some spine,"

This happened in the shadow of reports that Baharampur MP Yusuf Pathan had travelled to New Delhi following a summons from Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

TMC split in Lok Sabha deepens party crisis

The TMC split in the Lok Sabha became formal when 20 MPs, led by Chief Whip Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, wrote to Speaker Om Birla declaring support for the BJP-led NDA. Ghosh Dastidar stated, "We have accepted the people's verdict and believe our future political course should be aligned with the NDA," signalling a coordinated breakaway from the main leadership.

According to sources linked to the group driving the TMC split in Parliament, these MPs are not immediately resigning from the Trinamool Congress or enrolling in the BJP. Instead, they plan to act as a distinct parliamentary bloc that supports the NDA government, a strategy seen as aimed at avoiding disqualification under the anti-defection law.

TMC split in legislature adds pressure on Mamata Banerjee

The TMC split in the legislature wing began days earlier, when expelled MLAs Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha sent a letter claiming backing from 60 legislators. The document, signed by 58 MLAs, reaffirmed Mamata Banerjee as leader but suggested Ritabrata as Leader of the Opposition, creating a parallel power centre inside the party structure.

That move in the assembly, which crossed the two-thirds mark under the anti-defection law, was widely read as an effort to weaken Abhishek Banerjee. Ritabrata has repeatedly alleged that Abhishek Banerjee runs the TMC like a corporate set-up, not a political organisation, as the TMC split widened across both legislative and parliamentary wings.

TMC split backdrop to Yusuf Pathan–Mamata Banerjee seat row

The TMC split also frames an earlier row involving Yusuf Pathan and Mamata Banerjee. A Bengali daily reported that the party had approached former India captain Sourav Ganguly, asking Ganguly to persuade Pathan to resign from the Baharampur Lok Sabha seat so that Mamata Banerjee could contest a bypoll there, a claim that stirred intense debate inside the party.

The report on the TMC split and seat plan further claimed that Pathan rejected the proposal. It said Baharampur was considered safe for Mamata Banerjee because Muslims, a core support base for the party, were estimated at 50–52 per cent of voters. Ganguly, however, denied any role and accused the newspaper of acting in "reckless disregard of the truth".

Yusuf Pathan had earlier achieved a key organisational breakthrough for the TMC by defeating Congress veteran Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, becoming the first Trinamool candidate to win Baharampur since the party’s formation in the late 1990s. Moitra, who recently described rebel MLAs as "completely useless" and reliant on Mamata Banerjee’s charisma, now stands among the most vocal loyalists as the TMC split reshapes both party and parliamentary equations.