Kolkata: A section of senior TMC leaders, claiming that they derive their authority from party chief Mamata Banerjee, rejected the move made by the rebel party MLAs who met West Bengal Assembly Speaker Rathindra Bose on Wednesday and submitted letters of support from 58 legislators endorsing expelled party leader Ritabrata Banerjee as the Leader of Opposition.
The development came after a group of dissident TMC legislators met Bose and submitted letters of support from 58 MLAs backing Ritabrata Banerjee for the post of LoP.
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The dramatic development, vertically splitting the Trinamool legislative party into two -- similar to the 'Maharashtra model' where a split in the Shiv Sena in 2022 by a faction led by Eknath Shinde broke away from the parent party and, with the support of the BJP, formed the government in the state -- and claimed the status of the principal opposition.
"Under rules, who submitted this letter on behalf of the AITC, the party? The MLAs have no authority to do so. Abhishek Banerjee's letter is the only valid letter submitted to the Assembly Speaker. This act is legally untenable," a senior party leader said on condition of anonymity.
"Both Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha, who have mobilised the dissident MLAs, were expelled by the All India Trinamool Congress two days ago and the letters of their expulsion are in the public domain," he added.
The dissident TMC legislators also endorsed three MLAs, expelled legislator Sandipan Saha, Siuli Saha and Javed Khan, as deputy leaders of opposition and Raghunathganj MLA Akhruzzaman, as their chief whip.
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The move by the rebel TMC MLAs was made less than 24 hours after TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee shot off a fresh letter to Bose, reiterating the party's decision to appoint Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as the LoP.
The letter, which also endorsed Ashima Patra and Nayana Bandyopadhyay as deputy LoPs and Firhad Hakim as chief whip, requested the Speaker to recognise the posts "based on the precedent or practice of legislative assembly, which is in vogue for decades together".
Two TMC MLAs, Kunal Ghosh and Ashima Patra, attempted to deliver the letter by hand to the Speaker on Tuesday, but alleged that, in the absence of Bose in his office, his office secretary refused to accept it, stating he was under verbal instructions not to receive any letters from the TMC.
Ghosh later said he left Banerjee's letter at the table of the Speaker's office and subsequently e-mailed it to Bose while also sending it via registered post.
"If these rebel MLAs had such problems with the names officially decided by the party, why did they not raise it at the meeting where the decision was taken in the presence of Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee," Ghosh asked.
Wednesday's development came amid a CID probe into an alleged signature forgery case after Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha informed the Speaker on May 27 that no resolution regarding the selection of the LoP had been adopted at the party's May 6 meeting, contrary to the claim made in the party's official communication.
The two MLAs alleged that the so-called May 6 resolution was "manufactured and fabricated" and stated that as many as 14 of the 70 signatures were in "block letters".
Both Banerjee and Saha were expelled from the TMC on June 1 on grounds of indulging in "anti-party activities", minutes after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari named them as complainants in the signature forgery case.
