Netaji's grandnephew Chandra Kumar Bose quits TMC, denounces both major parties

Chandra Kumar Bose, the grandnephew of freedom fighter Subhas Chandra Bose, resigned from the Trinamool Congress on Monday, stating that he is disillusioned with mainstream politics and sees the BJP and TMC as two sides of the same coin. Having joined the TMC only four months earlier ahead of West Bengal’s assembly elections, he now plans to mentor a youth-driven political platform rooted in Netaji’s principles of inclusive nationalism, secularism, social justice and development.

Bose’s political résumé includes stints with the Forward Bloc, a 2016-2020 tenure as BJP state vice-president, and candidacies in the 2016 Assembly and 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He left the BJP in 2023, accusing it of failing to uphold the inclusive nationalist vision he associates with his great-uncle and Sarat Chandra Bose. While the TMC has not yet responded to his resignation, Bose emphasized that his new effort aims to offer an alternative to polarising and confrontational politics. Outside electoral contests, he also leads the Open Platform for Netaji, campaigning for greater access to archival material on the historic leader.