Kolkata: The rebellion within the TMC took a decisive turn on Wednesday, as 58 dissident MLAs backed legislator Ritabrata Banerjee, who has been expelled from the party, as the leader of the legislature party and conveyed their decision to the West Bengal Assembly speaker.
In response, the Mamata Banerjee camp dissolved all organisational committees of the TMC in West Bengal amid a deepening power struggle.
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.
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.
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 legislative 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.
