Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) is staring at one of its toughest electoral battles since coming to power in 2011, with a series of socio-political developments in 2025 posing formidable challenges ahead of the crucial Assembly elections scheduled next year.
Key trouble spots include allegations of appeasement politics, rampant corruption, rising crimes against women, mounting legal setbacks and a precarious state financial situation.
IANS takes a review of the major socio-political developments in West Bengal in 2025 that make the 2026 Assembly elections one of the toughest for Trinamool Congress and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee since 2011, the year which marked the end of the 34-year Left Front government and the beginning of the Trinamool Congress government.
Communal riots in Murshidabad
Communal riots broke out in the minority-dominated Murshidabad district of West Bengal in April this year after protests against the newly promulgated Waqf (Amendment) Act turned violent. A division bench of the Calcutta High Court observed that had the state government taken prompt and timely actions, including deciding on the deployment of central armed forces personnel (CAF), the situation there would not have turned so violent.
Again, on December 23, a district court in Murshidabad sentenced 13 convicted persons to life imprisonment in connection with the riots, with all of them being close aides of the ruling Trinamool Congress. The BJP seized upon the verdict to allege that the state police deliberately refrained from acting against the rioters due to their proximity to the ruling party — an allegation political observers say the TMC will find difficult to counter.
Waqf property registration in Bengal
Initially, in the first half of 2025, when the Waqf (Amendment) Act was promulgated, Mamata Banerjee vowed that under no circumstances would she allow the implementation of the Act in West Bengal. However, in the second half, a state government notification was issued hurriedly, instructing registration of the Waqf properties in the state on the UMEED Portal within an abysmally short deadline set for that purpose.
This prompted the non-BJP opposition parties in West Bengal, especially the CPI(M)-led Left Front, Congress, and All India Secular Front, to start a campaign accusing Trinamool Congress and the Chief Minister of maintaining double standards on this issue. Political observers feel that while the Murshidabad riots antagonised a large section of Hindu voters, the U-turn of the ruling party on the issue of Waqf property registration angered a large section of the Muslim voters.
Supreme Court order cancelling around 26,000 school jobs
In April this year, a division bench of the Supreme Court upheld an order by a division bench of the Calcutta High Court cancelling 25,753 teaching and non-teaching jobs in various state-run schools across the state following proven and gross irregularities in the recruitment process. The apex court also accepted the observation of the Calcutta High Court that the entire panel had to be cancelled because of the state government’s reluctance to furnish separate lists segregating the “tainted” from the “untainted” candidates.
Although the West Bengal government started the process for fresh recruitment to fill up vacant posts, that process continues to be entangled with some legal hurdles, posing uncertainty over the entire process.
The opposition parties have already started campaigning that any fair recruitment process in the Trinamool Congress regime is nothing but an absurd proposition — another challenge for the ruling party TMC ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls.
Lingering shadow of RG Kar rape and murder case
The August 2024 rape and murder of a junior doctor at R.G. Kar Medical College continued to haunt the TMC through 2025. While the Supreme Court later withdrew from the case, proceedings are still underway in the Calcutta High Court and lower courts.
Public perception remains damaging for the ruling party, with allegations that influential sections of the state administration attempted to shield the key conspirators. The TMC also faces criticism over allegedly vindictive actions, including the transfer of junior doctors who led protests following the incident.
In this matter, Trinamool Congress is also facing the controversies over allegedly vindictive departmental actions, including the arbitrary transfer of the junior doctors who became the lead faces of the movement on this rape and murder case.
Kasba Law College gang-rape case
Another major area of challenge that erupted for Trinamool Congress in 2025 was the rape of a law student within her college premises in Kasba in Kolkata, where all three accused were active associates of Trinamool Congress’s student wing — Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TMCP). Opposition parties have used the incident to allege that educational institutions in the state have turned into safe havens for politically backed strongmen, further denting the ruling party’s image.
DA arrears and threat of contempt
A fresh legal challenge looms over the state government following the Supreme Court’s directive to clear 25 per cent of dearness allowance arrears owed to state employees by June 30. The government’s failure to comply has raised the spectre of contempt of court.
Although the West Bengal government has filed a review petition in the matter in the apex court, legal experts feel that the review petition comes with no guarantee of protection against contempt of court for not abiding by the apex court order.
(IANS)
