Kolkata: Expelled TMC leader Ritabrata Banerjee on Wednesday, June 3, said the West Bengal Assembly speaker had accepted the rebel camp’s bid to be recognised as the party’s legislature wing and urged Mamata Banerjee to serve as its chief adviser.
The rebellion within the TMC took a decisive turn on Wednesday as 58 dissident MLAs backed legislator Ritabrata Banerjee as the leader of the legislature party and conveyed their decision to the Speaker Rathindra Bose.
In response, the Mamata Banerjee camp dissolved all organisational committees of the TMC in West Bengal amid a deepening power struggle.
Political observers viewed the move as an attempt by the leadership to regain control of the organisation and pave the way for restructuring the party apparatus amid the ongoing crisis.
The twin developments marked the most serious internal challenge faced by the TMC since its formation, raising questions over who controls the party’s legislative wing, its organisational machinery, and casting doubt on the party’s future after its crushing defeat in the assembly elections.
Control of TMC’s legislative party now in rebels’ hands
The latest development effectively placed the control of the TMC’s legislative party in the hands of dissidents and marked the most serious challenge yet to the authority of the party leadership following its defeat in the recent assembly polls.
Addressing a press conference in the Assembly after meeting the Speaker, Ritabrata Banerjee said his camp had submitted the signatures of 58 MLAs elected on the TMC symbol and “our claim has been accepted by the Speaker”.
Claiming that a clear majority of the party’s legislators were now behind him, he asserted the dissident faction represented the legitimate opposition in the House.
“The TMC legislative party is a team of 58 MLAs who won on the TMC symbol,” he said. According to Banerjee, two more legislators currently outside the state have also conveyed their support.
“Two other MLAs are likely to join us. Once they formally extend their support, our strength will rise further,” Ritabrata Banerjee said.
Abhishek Banerjee to have no role in legislature party
He said the Speaker had accepted the new composition of the legislature party and that the office meant for the Leader of the Opposition had been opened for him.
The rebel camp also unveiled a new leadership structure for the legislature party, asserting that Abhishek Banerjee will “have absolutely no role in it.”
“Neither our legislative party nor the party organisation has any connection whatsoever with him. Nor does the public have any connection with him. The people of Bengal have absolutely no connection with him. If there were a connection, he wouldn’t have remained in hiding for 26 days; he would have stepped out. He was beaten just as thieves are beaten,” Ritabrata said.
Banerjee announced that Akhruzzaman had been appointed chief whip, while veteran legislators Javed Ahmed Khan, Sandeepan Saha, Sabina Yasmin and Shiuli Saha would serve as deputy leaders.
“The letters communicating these appointments have already been submitted to the Speaker,” he said.
Appeal to Mamata to guide party
In a significant political gesture, Raitabrata Banerjee appealed to TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee to guide the legislature party despite the ongoing rebellion. “We would request Mamata Banerjee to play the role of the chief adviser of the legislative party,” he said.
At the same time, he indicated that the dissident camp had little political engagement with Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee.
TMC senior leaders question rebel MLAs’ authority
Under the anti-defection law, a breakaway faction requires the support of at least two-thirds of a legislature party to avoid disqualification. With the TMC having 80 MLAs in the Assembly, the threshold stands at 54.
The senior leaders who claim authority from the TMC supremo questioned the rebel MLAs, stating they have no authority to do so.
“Under the 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.
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 Bose’s absence at 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 on the table in 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.
CID probe into ‘fabricated’ signatures
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.
