The Mamata-Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) has nominated Sovandeb Chattopadhyay as the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the 18th West Bengal Assembly following the party's defeat to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2026 Assembly elections.
Chattopadhyay won the Ballygunge constituency by 61,476 votes. He was up against BJP candidate Shatarupa Chattopadhyay. He has created a record by becoming the only MLA in West Bengal to win 10 consecutive Assembly elections.
Who is Sovandeb Chattopadhyay?
Born in 1944, Chattopadhyay is a long-time confidant of Mamata Banerjee and is considered one of the founding pillars of the Trinamool Congress when the party was formed in 1998. In his younger years, he was trained as a boxer.
Before joining politics, he worked as an employee at the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and had disagreements with senior leader Subrata Mukherjee, who was then serving as Kolkata mayor. Over the years, he became closely associated with workers' organisations and currently serves as the president of the Kolkata Auto Rickshaw Operators' Union. He founded the INTTUC, which is the workers' wing of the TMC, and worked closely with labourers and auto-rickshaw drivers.
He started his political journey with the Congress and won the Baruipur seat in 1991 and 1996. After joining TMC, he continued winning elections from different constituencies, including Rashbehari, Bhabanipur, Khardaha and later Ballygunge. He is also remembered as the first MLA elected on a Trinamool Congress ticket after the party's formation.
Over the years, he had several clashes inside the party and often found himself sidelined despite being close to Mamata Banerjee. When the TMC came to power in West Bengal in 2011, Chattopadhyay was made the Government Chief Whip in the Assembly. This angered him as he was given the comparatively less influential post than Aroop Biswas, one of Mamata's trusted leaders. Later, he handled important departments in the state government, including Power, Agriculture and Parliamentary Affairs.
Chattopadhyay accused Aroop Biswas and his brother of interfering in his political territory and even used the term "goonda raj" to criticise their style of functioning. Even after becoming the Power Minister, his decisions as a minister were reportedly overturned, and he continued to face problems.
One of the biggest moments in his career came in 2021 when he resigned from the Bhabanipur seat so Mamata Banerjee could contest a by-election from there. He later contested from Khardaha and won by a huge margin. He also landed in controversy after exposing an alleged fake job scam in which some TMC-linked leaders were accused of taking money from thousands of youths by promising government jobs.
