The rebellion tearing through the Trinamool Congress has morphed from a leadership squabble into a full-blown financial reckoning, with former comrades now accusing Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee of turning the party into a vehicle for systematic slush money generation and private enrichment. They allege a web of offshore loans, luxury aircraft, legal expense kickbacks and policy linked payoffs in liquor and lottery that, taken together, amount to what Ritabrata Banerjee, Leader of the Opposition and fulcrum of the anti-Kalighat offensive, calls “an entire business model built around the party.” What began as murmurs over centralisation of power at Kalighat, Mamata’s home turf, has sharpened into detailed complaints before investigators and banks, forcing an unprecedented freeze on Trinamool’s finances and thrusting questions of money and morality to the centre of Bengal’s political stage.
The most explosive allegations arise from the party’s aviation spending.
Acting on a complaint by rebel MLA Biswanath Das, enforcement agencies have traced a money trail from TMC’s HDFC accounts—holding around Rs 440 crore—to charter company Carewell Aviation India Pvt Ltd and a clutch of related entities. Between April 2023 and June 2026, roughly Rs 160 crore was allegedly transferred out of party coffers, with around Rs 82.96 crore routed through a newly incorporated firm and ultimately used to purchase an Embraer Legacy 600 business jet and an Agusta 109 helicopter.
According to officials familiar with the probe, the financial architecture behind these purchases included an offshore leg. They say an unsecured loan of US $1.7 million was arranged in 2023 from a Cayman Islands based entity to support the helicopter deal, an arrangement that investigators described as “dubious”.
The two aircraft, although funded out of the party’s corpus, were then contracted back to TMC on lease, with rentals again flowing from party accounts.
“The Embraer Legacy 600 aircraft and Agusta helicopter were rented to TMC itself, even though they were purchased from the corpus of the party, and substantial amounts were transferred on the pretext of aircraft usage,” states an Enforcement Directorate note summarising the arrangement.
Rebel leaders say this circular flow effectively turned the organisation into a subsidy mechanism for the leadership’s lifestyle. “What we are seeing is a classic case of party funds being siphoned off under the guise of services, so that a small coterie can fly in luxury while the organisation carries the bill,” a disgruntled former MLA.
The party’s heavy reliance on chartered flights had already become a sore point within its own ranks. Ritabrata Banerjee publicly criticised Abhishek Banerjee’s travel habits, saying he had heard from airport staff of costly charter movements. “He has absolutely no connection with the masses,” Ritabrata said, questioning why Abhishek could not use “free MP coupons” instead of spending crores on air travel between Kolkata and Delhi—money, he suggested, that could have gone to the legal defence of embattled workers.
At the organisational level, the revolt has placed Mamata and Abhishek at the centre of a bitter fight over both money and control. Former MLA and ex treasurer Aroop Biswas, aligned with the rebel camp, wrote to HDFC Bank demanding immediate restrictions on key party accounts.
In his communication, he claimed that unexplained inflows and opaque outflows had turned TMC’s finances into a “black box” dominated by the Kalighat leadership. “We have reason to believe that these accounts are being used to park slush funds and to finance private assets under the cloak of party expenditure,” Biswas wrote, seeking a forensic audit of transactions.
Another faultline has opened in the school recruitment scam, where self-confessed middleman Tapas Mondal has gone public with claims that the top brass not only knew about cash collections for jobs, but benefited from them.
Mondal says he maintained a diary recording each handover and that nearly Rs 19.44 crore was delivered to arrested accused Kuntal Ghosh between 2016 and 2021. In testimony that has sent political shockwaves, he alleged that the chain did not stop there—that the money ultimately moved to Sujay Krishna Bhadra, better known for his moniker “Kalighater Kaku”, described as a figure close to Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee.
After his name was linked to the jobs scam, Bhadra claimed he was not associated with any malpractice or irregularities. However, he said that he used to work in Abhishek Banerjee’s company Leaps and Bounds, and called Banerjee his “boss”. He also famously said that though the money trail could reach him, nobody would be able to link his boss to such dealings since Banerjee never spoke directly to people.
Despite Bhadra’s denials, Tapas Mondal says: “Such a large operation could not have taken place without Abhishek Banerjee’s knowledge or approval.” He went further still, declaring: “Mamata knew everything.” He directly accused the former Chief Minister of being aware of the racket and its proceeds.
Though his statements remain to be tested in court, critics within and outside the party have seized on them as proof that the aviation, recruitment and party account stories are part of a wider slush money ecosystem.
The aviation trail has also sharpened scrutiny of how Trinamool has funded its legal battles and crisis management.
Rebel leaders insist that the same opaque accounts used to pay aircraft rentals have been deployed to channel money to select law firms and consultants, far beyond what would be expected for routine party work.
One rebel, speaking on condition of anonymity as investigations continue, alleged that high value retainers became a “safe route” to disguise transfers. “Large invoices for ‘case preparation’ or ‘advisory’ would be raised, money would go out of party accounts, and then part of it would quietly come back in cash or through informal channels,” he alleged. “It was a neat way to convert party funds into personal war chests, especially ahead of elections.”
Beyond direct transfers, former comrades and opposition voices have for long alleged that state policy itself was weaponised to generate off-the-books income.
Particular attention has fallen on West Bengal’s excise regime. A confidential internal report, cited by local media, alleges that changes made to the liquor distribution system—most notably the creation of the West Bengal State Beverages Corporation and a reworked two-tier duty structure—enabled monopolisation of distribution and diversion of revenue.
The report names Abhishek Banerjee in connection with a scheme built around the 2017 overhaul, suggesting that politically connected entities enjoyed preferential access while bottlers bore the cost. One such bottler, speaking anonymously, said that they would be asking for their money back. “The money that was illegally extorted from us by the nexus of Abhishek Banerjee and corrupt excise officials,” he alleged.
Similar allegations have been made regarding lottery operations and allied contracts. Political analysts said that regulatory leniency and contract awards are said to have favoured corporate allies close to the TMC leadership, with slush funds allegedly routed back as donations or via shell intermediaries. I-PAC, the Trinamool’s consultancy firm, is alleged to have been the conduit for such operations.
“The pattern is familiar: create dependence through permission and policy, then skim off a cut that never shows up in official party accounts,” one observer remarked.
Rebel TMC leaders maintain that the now frozen accounts are only the visible tip of a much larger informal structure, with liquor and lottery “collections” feeding into the same centralised network that handled aviation rentals and high-end legal spending.
“Whether it is liquor, lottery or recruitment fees, everything ultimately converged at the top,” a rebel MLA alleged. “What we are exposing is not isolated corruption but an entire business model built around the party.”
Facing a cascade of allegations, Trinamool Congress spokesperson Kunal Ghosh dismissed the entire thrust as politically motivated. On the aircraft and fund freezing controversy, he insisted that all balances were transparently disclosed and that the probe was driven by “partisan considerations”.
The legal landscape remains fluid. The Calcutta High Court has appointed a retired High Court judge as a special officer to manage day to day expenses and allow limited operation of the frozen accounts, offering some procedural relief.
Yet parallel orders under anti-laundering laws have kept the core funds locked, even as investigators follow the money through aviation firms, offshore loans, professional service payments and alleged policy linked payoffs.
The allegations remain the subject of ongoing investigations, contested narratives and fierce political spin. But for Mamata and Abhishek Banerjee, the immediate challenge is no longer just to hold their party together.
Former comrades, armed with ledgers, letters and lurid stories of jets and Cayman loans, have placed the question of private enrichment squarely at the heart of TMC’s crisis.
“We had joined a movement; we did not sign up to fund private planes, offshore loans and secret war chests,” Ritabrata Banerjee said. “The people of Bengal deserve to know where every rupee has gone,” he added.
