The observance of Martyr’s Day on July 21—long regarded as the flagship political event of former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool Congress, showcasing the party’s biggest annual mobilisation and organisational strength, now stands fragmented after more than three decades.
Although the Congress has always maintained that Mamata Banerjee “hijacked” an event originally belonging to the Youth Congress movement that killed 13 people in 1993, she converted it into what has become Trinamool’s signature show of strength and venue from where to dictate political terms for her party.
The allegation of Congress is not without reason because the day predates even the Trinamool Congress.
The incident happened on July 21, 1993 when Mamata Banerjee, then president of the Youth Congress, marched on this route— demanding that voter ID cards be made compulsory for exercising franchise.
Arrests were made round the clock and in central Kolkata police firing led to killing of 13 Youth Congress workers.
Hinting that the incident took place when there was a Congress movement, a senior Congress leader said “It is Mamata Banerjee who created her own history on this date after forming the new political party Trinamool Congress in 1998”.
However, this year, for the first time since the formation of Trinamool’s Congress in 1998, four political formations are claiming the legacy of July 21 and projecting themselves as the true guardians of martyrs’ memory.
The upheaval comes after the Trinamool Congress suffered a humiliating rout in the 2026 Assembly elections, bringing an end to its almost 15-year rule in West Bengal, and causing an unprecedented organisational divide.
Once a party, now split between Mamata Banerjee’s Kalighat camp and the Ritabrata Banerjee-led group that claimed itself to be just “the real” Trinamool.
Given yet another dimension, erstwhile Trinamool MPs who joined the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) too are planning separate Martyrs’ Day functions as the Congress persists with its traditional one.
It is not only about four splinter organisations observing Martyr’s Day in four different parts of the city but the administration didn’t even allow the Mamata Banerjee-led faction to hold its rally near Victoria House at Esplanade- a place that has become synonymous with the July 21 rally.
However, later the court allowed Kalighat camp to hold its programme in front of Birla Planetarium with a cap of 2,500 people.
The Ritabrata Banerjee faction would hold its function near the Gandhi statue, while the NCPI, made up of eight former Trinamool MPs from Bengal shall also observe the Day separately to show they are still alive politically.
The West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee, which had traditionally held its memorial at Mahajati Sadan, has shifted this year’s event to the Shahid Minar grounds.
The internal bickering within the party seems to have drowned out the voices of those at the very heart of the movement.
This time, some of the families of the 13 martyrs were ignored by either side for the first time in 32 years of observing this day.
For decades, inviting the families of martyrs was an integral feature of the programme with Trinamool leaders personally arranging travel, stay and participation at the event but this year as the party is splintered and out-of-power in Bengal a number of these families have found themselves excluded from commemoration built on their loved one’s sacrifice.
This is the first July 21 since the Trinamool’s electoral defeat and collapse as a national organisation.
The splintered party, which at the time simply used that occasion as a showcase of its power, is now fighting internally over who owns their own political legacy.