Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday (July 15, 2026) urged party supporters to attend her party’s July 21 Martyrs’ Day meeting in front of Kolkata’s Birla Planetarium. Similar rallies are being organised by the rebel Trinamool camp and the Congress on the same day.
On Wednesday, the Calcutta High Court permitted Mamata Banerjee to hold the Martyrs’ Day rally after they failed to get permission to hold the meeting in Esplanade in front of Victoria House. Ms Banerjee welcomed the court order. This is the first time in decades that she will not hold the rally in its former venue.
“We have been honouring our martyrs for 40 years on July 21. I would have done the program even if I was alone, but I am not alone, I have lakhs of people with me... People who want to leave can leave, but we will fight our way through... If needed we do will meetings from rickshaws and vans,” Ms Banerjee said. She also added that she will visit the meeting venue on July 20 evening to check the preparations.
The Trinamool chairperson also urged the administration and the police not to let any Bharatiya Janata Party miscreants disrupt their Martyrs’ Day program. Since there are three parallel meetings, Ms Banerjee also alerted her supporters not to let anyone misguide them into joining other meetings.
Justice Saugata Bhattacharya directed that Ms Banerjee’s meeting near Birla Planetarium. However, they have been asked not to block both sides of the road because there will be three meetings at the same time in the city within a close circle which may cause law and order situations.
Over the past three decades, the July 21 Martyrs Day gathering has become Mamata Banerjee’s biggest annual political gathering. After 2011, when she came to power, not only her party leaders and supporters but prominent people from all walks of life would make a beeline to the gathering. Sharing the stage with Mamata Banerjee at July 21 event would mean having the blessings of the ruling establishment in West Bengal. Lakhs of people from all across the state would gather to catch a glimpse of the leader and hear her speaking.
After the defeat in the recently concluded Assembly polls and defections and desertions in the party, it will be interesting to see how much of a crowd will assemble at Ms. Banerjee’s call.
In 1993, on July 21, a protest march led by Ms Banerjee (then youth Congress leader) was marching towards the Writer’s Building (State Secretariate during the Left regime) demanding that Voter IDs be the sole mandatory card for elections. The protest turned violent as police baton charged and open fired on the protestors, resulting in 13 deaths. Since then, even after Ms Banerjee separated from the Congress and formed the Trinamool in 1998, the party has commemorated this day as their Martyrs’ Day.
However, this year, the chaos around the event has been much talked about in Bengal as at least three parallel meetings are set to be held on the same day within a 3km radius of each other, all in the heart of the city. Amid the rising speculation of which faction will gather most crowd and the political turmoil, all three factions have taken jibes at each other for being the “original” flagbearer of the event.
The Ritabrata Banerjee faction of Trinamool leaders is arranging their own Martyrs Day event at Mayo Road near Gandhi Statue, a venue Ms Banerjee said that they had asked permission for but failed to get it. Meanwhile, Congress will hold its event at Shahid Minar. Congress State president, Subhankar Sarkar on Tuesday had also asked the Trinamool chairperson to attend their event and accept that leaving Congress was a “mistake”.
“July 21 will only be about honouring the martyrs. There will be no show and pomp,” Ritabrata Banerjee said at the press conference on Wednesday. This was a direct jibe at Ms Banerjee, as many of the previous Martyrs’ Day events have seen cultural programs when it was led by the Trinamool chairperson.
In the press conference other top Trinamool leaders were also seen with Ritabrata Banerjee. They were all once close confidants of Ms Banerjee and had shared stage with her on every Martyrs’ Day event till last year.
Published - July 16, 2026 10:41 am IST