[19] It was founded by Mamata Banerjee on 1 January 1998 as a breakaway faction from the Indian National Congress and rapidly rose to prominence in the politics of West Bengal under her leadership.

Presently, it is ruling the state of West Bengal beside being the third-largest party in India in terms of number of MPs just after the BJP and INC.

[30] In the 2011 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, the TMC-led alliance that included the INC and SUCI(C) won 227 seats in the 294-seat legislature, defeating the incumbent Left Front government which had been in power for 34 years.

[34] On 18 September 2012, Banerjee announced her decision to withdraw support to the UPA after the TMC's demands to undo government-instituted changes including FDI in retail, increase in the price of diesel and limiting the number of subsidised cooking gas cylinders for households, were not met.

It also qualified for national party status, as the TMC had received 6% of the vote from five different states (West Bengal, Manipur, Tripura, Jharkhand and Assam).

Prior to the election, several high-profile TMC members such as Mukul Roy and Suvendu Adhikari had defected to the BJP.

Later in 2022, former Rajya Sabha MP from Congress, Mr Ripun Bora joined AITC and was named the President of its Assam Unit.

[48] On 23 November 2021 Kirti Azad, a three-time MP from Darbhanga and Pavan Varma, a former adviser to Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, joined TMC.

Leaders like Mukul Roy, Derek O'Brien, Mahua Moitra and Nadimul Haque visited Kerala and gave directions for further development in the party's activities.

The 2014 Lok Sabha elections made the Trinamool Congress presence known in Kerala, although it failed to garner significant votes.

In the 2016 state election, TMC contested in 70 assembly constituencies but due to technical errors, the party symbol was not accepted.

[62] TMC candidate Purno Agitok Sangma won the Tura constituency by a huge margin in the 2004 Lok Sabha election.

Under the leadership of Sudip Roy Barman, former leader of opposition and then MLA of Tripura, all six MLAs of the Indian National Congress defected to the TMC in 2016, along with many ex-ministers, former MLAs, senior state and district level leaders, in addition to thousands of party workers and supporters, to fight CPI(M), who were running the Government in Tripura.

[71][neutrality is disputed] Later in the presence of Himanta Biswa Sarma and Dharmendra Pradhan, Barman defected to the BJP along with all of the other TMC MLAs of the Tripura Legislative Assembly after they cross-voted against party lines in the 2017 Indian presidential election.

[72] TMC won one seat in Ambassa Municipal council in the 2021 Tripura civic polls despite widespread violence.

[98] The usage of "All India" in the party name represents the rejection of "elitist" Indian National Congress from which it broke apart from.

[100][101] The slogan Joy Bangla is also officially used by Mamata Banerjee and by her party Trinamool Congress as part of attempt to create a territorial and ethnolinguistic identity for Bengalis in India.

The "Khela Hobe" term has been used across India by several opposition parties and to catalyse the movements against the establishment on multiple issues throughout the nation.

[127] Leaders from Congress and CPI(M) like Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Sujan Chakraborty, Biman Bose were also accused in this scam.

[129] The Rose Valley financial scandal was a major financial scam and alleged political scandal in India caused by the collapse of a Ponzi scheme run by Rose Valley Group where multiple MPs from Banerjee's party were accused of money laundering.

[130][131][132] The Narada sting operation was carried out by Mathew Samuel in 2011 for the Indian newsmagazine Tehelka and published on Naradanews.com just before the 2016 West Bengal Assembly elections.

The sting targeted high-ranking officials and politicians of Banerjee's political party All India Trinamool Congress (AITC).

[133][134] During her tenure she challenged the federal system of India when she ordered the arrest of CBI officials, who arrived in Kolkata to investigate the Saradha Group financial scandal.

[136] Rujira Banerjee, the wife of Abhishek Banerjee, the Lok Sabha member and national general secretary of the Trinamool Congress, appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday after being prevented from boarding a flight to the UAE earlier this week due to a "lookout" notice issued by the central organisation.

[137][138] According to officials, as quoted by the news agency PTI, Rujira appeared before the ED in Kolkata on Thursday for questioning about the coal theft case.

In a money-laundering case related to a West Bengal coal scam, the Supreme Court of India on Tuesday stayed a Delhi High Court decision allowing the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to question Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee in Delhi, but allowed the investigation agency to question him in Kolkata after providing 24 hours' notice.

On the evening of 11 August, Mondal was transferred from Asansol to the CBI office in Kolkata's Nizam Palace, where he is currently being questioned.

[141][142] Mondal is one of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's most dependable aides, and he was in charge of all TMC operations in Birbhum.

The ongoing cross-border cattle smuggling case, which allegedly involves a connection between BSF, Customs, and police personnel with racketeers and politicians, has come back into the spotlight as a result of the arrest of the TMC strongman.

The entire syndicate business is alleged to have prospered when AITC ultimately won the 2011 Legislative Assembly election and began their tenure.