# TMC MP says Mamata might forgive rebel leaders 2026-08-22T13:01:04+00:00 | Politics | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet Trinamool Congress MP Dola Sen has said that party chief Mamata Banerjee may forgive legislators who rebelled during the recent crisis in West Bengal. In an interview with Hindustan Times, Sen said Banerjee 'generally forgives everyone' but added, 'Rather, we are scared that she will forgive the traitors also, the renegades also.' The comments come months after the TMC lost the West Bengal assembly elections in April 2026, winning only 80 seats in the 294-member house. The party is now grappling with a faction led by Ritabrata Banerjee, who claims the support of over 60 of TMC's 80 MLAs, and a group of Lok Sabha MPs who have moved to the NCPI. Earlier this week, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court declined to stay the assembly speaker's decision recognising Ritabrata Banerjee as the leader of the opposition. The court directed that a petition by TMC legislator Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay be resolved within two months. ## Indian Opinion Analysis The question of forgiveness is not just about party discipline but about arithmetic. With only 80 MLAs, Mamata Banerjee needs every loyalist she can keep to remain a viable opposition. Forgiving rebels would bring back numbers but risks emboldening future defections. The two-month deadline set by the Calcutta High Court for the LoP petition is the next concrete date to watch: whichever faction controls that post controls the official opposition platform and the flow of constitutional benefits. ## Coverage - hindustantimes.com Leads with direct quote from MP, reports both sides of the internal TMC split without editorialising. This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Tags: Calcutta High Court, Dola Sen, Mamata Banerjee, Ritabrata Banerjee, Trinamool Congress, West Bengal Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/tmc-mp-says-mamata-might-forgive-rebel-leaders/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/tmc-mp-says-mamata-might-forgive-rebel-leaders/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes. How this brief was made: an AI model read the report linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/