
In this screengrab from a video posted on June 1, 2026, TMC chief and former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee addresses media over a sit-in protest, in Kolkata, West Bengal. Photo: MAMATA BANERJEE/FB via PTI Photo
Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee on Monday (June 1, 2026) said their MLAs were not allowed to participate in meetings and were threatened with the help of police. This comes a day after only one fourth of MLAs came to attend a meeting at her residence, and they had to eventually call off the meeting.
“Trinamool MLAs are being threatened with the help of police, local IC and SPs are making calls. They are sending police to their homes so that they cannot leave. They are directly asking our MLAs to break the party. The first call comes from police, the second phone from the BJP office,” Ms. Banerjee said.
The Trinamool supremo said at least four of her MLAs faced such threats and were facing threats from the police to get slapped with fake cases under the Arms Act and other cases. She questioned if this was how democracy functioned. Ms. Banerjee claimed that many of her party leaders were not speaking due to fear and were being pressured to break the party.
The meeting on Sunday (May 31, 2026_ was called by Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Sobhandeb Chatterjee, and former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was also likely to address the MLAs. Though the Trinamool has 80 MLAs in the House, only 20 of them showed up, leading to the party cancelling the meeting.
Ms. Banerjee alleged that the BJP had won at least 177 seats by rigging and electoral malpractices. The TMC was also supposed to hold a protest in Kolkata on Tuesday. However, Ms. Banerjee said they were not given permission by the police.
The former Chief Minister stated that there had been many attempts to break her party, and some outliers in her party were taking advantage of the situation to change sides. However, they would come back stronger and build the party from the ground up again if needed and offering money or sending threats to their leaders would not help, she said.
However, BJP Minister Agnimitra Paul said if the Trinamool had any ideological base, it would have survived.
“Today they have perished because their ideologies only include syndicates, cut money, bribes, and taking advantage of people. That is why yesterday their MLAs did not show up. This shows that they lack faith in Mamata Banerjee,” Ms. Paul said.
Published – June 01, 2026 09:47 pm IST


