Mamata Banerjee at TMC's protest march in Kolkata, massive crowd gathers

She alleged that while the common people and small traders were living in fear, and hawkers were being evicted without a proper rehabilitation plan, the ruling BJP was using "money and power" to engineer defections in her party.

The former chief minister, however, asserted that the departure of leaders from the party fold for personal interests would help rebuild the organisation, and the TMC would emerge stronger from the crisis.

Banerjee said that 12 TMC workers had been killed since the Assembly elections and that thousands of party activists had been arrested, while many others had been forced to flee their homes.