TMC Crisis: Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee suffered another political setback on Thursday after actress-turned-politician and Rajya Sabha MP Rukmini Mallick, professionally known as Koel Mallick, resigned from the Upper House of the Parliament.
In her resignation letter addressed to Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice President CP Radhakrishnan, Mallick said she was resigning from the membership of the Rajya Sabha with immediate effect.
“I do hereby resign from the membership of Rajya Sabha, which may please be accepted with immediate effect," the letter reads.
Mallick was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in April 2026, just before West Bengal Assembly elections, in a move widely viewed as an attempt by the party to leverage her popularity in Bengal. After taking oath as a member of the Upper House, she actively participated in political campaigns and public outreach programmes.
Shortly after resignation move, she met Union Minister and BJP veteran Bhupender Yadav at his residence in Delhi, sparking a buzz about her next move.
A popular face in the Bengali film industry, also known as Tollywood, Koel Mallick is the daughter of veteran Bengali film actor Ranjit Mallick and Deepa Mallick. She married film producer Nispal Singh in 2013, and they have a son. She has won several awards for her performances in movies.
Mallick’s decision came just a day after senior TMC leader and former West Bengal minister Madan Mitra resigned from the Mamata Banerjee-led party and joined the rebel TMC faction headed by Ritabrata Banerjee.
Speaking after joining the rebel camp, Mitra sought to downplay the move, saying he had “only changed my room in the Assembly."
He further launched a sharp attack on the party’s leadership, alleging that the organisation had become centred around TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
“… I had suggested to Abhishek Banerjee that he step aside for six months or a year. I told him, let us build the party, and then you can come back and take your seat but he refused. He said, I won’t leave the party. The party is sinking; the boat has gone under. People are dying. Yet, the party decided or rather it was forced to accept that everyone else could die, but Abhishek had to be saved. It is deeply saddening," Mitra had said.
The TMC is grappling with internal divisions after it faced a sweeping defeat by the BJP in the 2026 assembly elections. The rebellion within the TMC began soon after the party’s defeat, when expelled MLA Ritabrata Banerjee emerged as the face of a breakaway faction challenging Mamata Banerjee’s leadership.
Earlier, three TMC MPs– Sushmita Dev, Prakash Chik Baraik and Sukhendu Sekhar Ray– resigned from the Upper House before switching to the BJP. Intrestingly, hours after switching to the saffron camp, these three leaders were fielded as candidates for the Upper House by-elections.
The by-elections were necessitated because the leaders had vacated the seats before the shift.
The BJP’s Central Election Committee announced their names for the July 24 Rajya Sabha bypolls after the three leaders joined the party at its Salt Lake office in the presence of West Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya and other senior leaders.
