Kolkata:
Actor turned politician Saayoni Ghosh has openly taken pride in the fact that she has styled herself by taking inspiration from Mamata Banerjee. Speaking to NDTV during the election campaign in April this year, the Trinamool Congress Youth Wing Chief Saayoni Ghosh said, “I am supposed to follow my leader. I am not supposed to follow Narendra Modi, and thank god I don’t follow him. If I followed Narendra Modi, I would be travelling in an Rs 8000 crore private jet. My leader is very simple.” Ghosh has not yet denied reports of her move to the rebel camp in the Trinamool Congress.
“If Didi wins, Bengal wins,” Saayoni Ghosh told NDTV. And now, after Mamata Banerjee’s loss in the election, Ghosh has been seen meeting top BJP leaders like Bhupendra Yadav in New Delhi.
Ghosh, a well-known actor who essayed the role of Bimala Ray in Aparajito (2022), where she played the supportive wife of the iconic filmmaker Satyajit Ray in the acclaimed biographical tribute. She played Koli in Rajkahini (2015), where she essayed the role of a woman living in a brothel on the border during the Partition of Bengal. In 2021, she joined the Trinamool Congress before the Assembly elections.
Saayoni Ghosh joined the Trinamool Congress in the presence of Mamata Banerjee during a rally addressed by Mamata Banerjee in Hooghly during the 2021 Assembly elections in the state. Saayoni Ghosh fought the Assembly election from the Asansol South constituency in 2021 but lost to BJP’s Agnimitra Paul, who is now a minister in the newly elected BJP government in the state. She was appointed the President of the youth wing of the Trinamool Congress in June 2021 and was reappointed to the position recently after a meeting last week at Mamata Banerjee’s residence. Just days after the appointment, Saayoni Ghosh is now believed to have switched to the rebel side under the leadership of Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar.
She has been one of the strongest critics of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). “We don’t care what the BJP says… we are not afraid of anti-incumbency.” When asked about the ‘vote for change’ line, Ghosh said, “I have said this before. Their boat can’t go beyond 200 (seats). But petrol and diesel can go beyond 200,” Ghosh told NDTV during the campaign.
“I want to say to the BJP, ‘stay (here) for 365 days. We will make a home for you… But you will not win Bengal,” she had told NDTV.
Today, all that has changed. Ghosh is now believed to be part of the rebel group of Trinamool Congress MPs who are reportedly backing the NDA. And this change of heart is what many in political circles are talking about. Ghosh herself has not spoken on the issue so far and remained unavailable on the telephone when NDTV tried to contact her for a response on the development. Ghosh arrived in Kolkata this afternoon but did not speak to the media at the airport.
Kolkata, West Bengal: TMC rebel MP Saayoni Ghosh arrives in Kolkata from Delhi pic.twitter.com/brxEWWOFFO
— IANS (@ians_india) June 11, 2026
Trinamool insiders feel that the reported defection of Saayoni Ghosh to the rebel faction in Parliament comes as a surprise, given the acrimonious relationship she has shared with the BJP over the years.
Saayoni Ghosh is no stranger to controversy. An old post from Ghosh’s X account, dating back to February 2015, resurfaced and sparked controversy, and the BJP accused her of hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus. The BJP has often targeted her for the post. Ghosh has maintained her innocence in the matter even as former Tripura Governor Tathagata Roy had filed a police complaint against her for allegedly hurting his religious sentiments.
In May this year, a video of a BJP municipal chairman from Sikandrabad in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr district went viral. The leader, Pradeep Dixit, was seen announcing a reward of Rs 1 crore for beheading Ghosh.
Saayoni Ghosh hit out at the BJP leader’s remarks, saying she was “taken aback to see a public announcement offering a Rs 1 crore reward to behead me”.
Tagging Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP President Nitin Nabin and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla in her post, the Trinamool Congress MP asked if this was the government’s idea of ‘Nari Shakti Vandan’ in the new Bharat, in a reference to the Women’s Reservation Bill.
From stringent opposition and pitching Mamata Banerjee for Prime Minister to reportedly supporting the NDA, Saayoni Ghosh has come a long way. In 2024, the Trinamool Congress pitched her from the Jadavpur seat, a seat represented by Mamata Banerjee herself in her first election in 1984. The Jadavpur MP has gone viral for her attacks on the Prime Minister and the Home Minister through her fiery speeches in the Lok Sabha. Ghosh had asserted that she would never abandon Mamata Banerjee, but from the time the Trinamool Congress started to splinter both in the Assembly and Parliament, Saayoni Ghosh has remained conspicuous by her absence at Kalighat and her silence.
On social media, in recent times, Saayoni Ghosh criticised the attack on party MP and National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee, calling it a pre-planned attack and saying, “Bengal politics has hit a new low.”
The cowardly attack on AITC National General Secretary and Member of Parliament Shri Abhishek Banerjee is a shocking assault on democratic values and political dissent.
A PRE-PLANNED attacked by those who stole peoples true verdict.
Bengal politics has hit a new low! https://t.co/xb2L7ujvjb
— Saayoni Ghosh (@sayani06) May 30, 2026
Saayoni Ghosh was also questioned by the Enforcement Directorate for 10 hours in June 2024 in connection with the alleged teachers’ recruitment scam. Her reported move, along with that of Mala Roy, another MP from Kolkata who has been a long-time aide of Mamata Banerjee, has fuelled speculation that the Trinamool Congress could have very few MPs and MLAs left after the rebellion.
