Hours after expelled Trinamool Congress MLA, Ritabrata Banerjee, reached the West Bengal Assembly with 59 party MLAs backing him for the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in defiance of the party leadership, Speaker Rathindra Bose has admitted his claim and handed over the keys of the Leader of the Opposition’s room.
This is an open challenge to the party’s leader, Mamata Banerjee, who earlier backed veteran leader Sovandeb Chattopadhyay for the Leader of the Opposition post. The rebel MLAs have submitted a letter — on a white pad, not on the party’s letter pad — naming Mamata Banerjee as the party’s leader, Ritabrata Banerjee as the Leader of the Opposition, and Sheuli Saha, Javed Khan, Sandipan Saha and Sabina Yasmin as deputy leaders in the House. The Trinamool Congress has a total of 80 MLAs in the 294-member Assembly.
The rebel MLAs, sources said, are not ready to accept Sovandeb Chattopadhyay as the Leader of the Opposition in the House. This comes less than a month after the Trinamool Congress suffered a crushing defeat in the Bengal polls, and the Suvendu Adhikari-led BJP came to power in the eastern state.
Addressing the media, Ritabrata Banerjee said,“We are representing Trinamool Congress in the Assembly. We are a block of 60 MLAs. We would request Mamata Banerjee to be our advisor and guide us. We will play the role of a constructive opposition.” He added that he and the MLAs in his camp “do not take responsibility” for the remaining party MLAs, many of whom remain loyal to Mamata Banerjee.
Sandipan Saha, an MLA who was expelled along with Ritabrata Banerjee, was asked this morning how many MLAs support them. “More than two-thirds,” he replied. This is important because a section of Trinamool leaders has said the rebel group is trying to shore up its numbers to more than two-thirds of the Trinamool’s strength in the House so that they do not attract provisions of the anti-defection law in case there is a party switch.
In another key development, shortly after the rebel MLAs’ show of defiance,the Trinamool Congress leadership decided to dissolve all party committees and frontal organisations. The party leadership said in a post on X that it will undertake a “comprehensive exercise of introspection, performance review and organisational assessment at every level” before reconstituting its organisational structure.
The drama in the Assembly is playing out against the backdrop of developments within the Trinamool Congress following the poll defeat that ended its rule in Bengal.
A section of Trinamool’s MLAs have been conspicuous by their absence at party meetings over the past couple of weeks. Most were missing at the protest led by former Chief Minister and the party’s founder, Mamata Banerjee.
A senior Trinamool leader said, “Some MLAs are trying the ‘Maharashtra model’ in which Eknath Shinde of Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar of NCP broke the party and snatched the party’s name and symbol. Some MLAs are trying such a coup in the party.”
On May 6, two days after the poll results, 71 out of the party’s 80 MLAs attended a meeting at Mamata Banerjee’s residence. On May 19, this number dropped to 65. And on May 31, only 20 MLAs attended the meeting at the party leader’s home.
What followed was Chief Minister Adhikari’s announcement that two Trinamool Congress MLAs – Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha – had complained to Bengal Assembly Speaker Rathindra Bose that their signatures were forged in the Trinamool Congress communication naming the Leader of the Opposition in the House.
Soon after, the Trinamool Congress expelled Ritabrata Banerjee (MLA from Uluberia-Purba) and Sandipan Saha (MLA from Entally), citing anti-party activities.
Responding to his expulsion, Sandipan Saha said, “The party supports those who do unethical things. And it expels those who do ethical things. We did not even know that a signature in an attendance register would be passed off as a signature on a proposal.”
Banerjee, who was a CPM Rajya Sabha MP before shifting to the Trinamool, launched a scathing attack on the party leadership. “The party is not ready to accept defeat. When we went to the meeting, we were told to give a standing ovation to Abhishek Banerjee for the election result.”
Amid the chaos within the party, Mamata Banerjee’s remarks have only intensified speculation that the party faces a possible split.
“Someone who earlier was with CPM (Ritabrata Banerjee) is doing it all. We gave him a ticket by depriving others. My apologies to those who were deprived. Our 2,500 party offices have been vandalised and 10,000 workers have been arrested. Police are threatening MLAs, asking them not to step out of their homes. Police are asking MLAs to support a person we have expelled (Ritabrata Banerjee) and to break our party.”
Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, “We have heard they had a meeting in the MLAs’ hostel and a private hotel. They are trying to follow the Maharashtra model.”
Ritabrata has denied any secret meeting. “I am not such a big leader who can have the support of more than 50 MLAs,” he said, adding, “I don’t know what will happen tomorrow.”
The BJP, meanwhile, has maintained that this is an internal crisis in the Trinamool Congress. Minister Tapas Roy said Trinamool “will break, as it should”. State BJP president Samik Bhattacharya has said that the party will not accept leaders from Trinamool Congress.
“Trinamoolisation of BJP will never happen. Our doors are closed for TMC. We reached the number 207 without importing anyone. The people voted against the leaders of TMC. Our political strategy this time started from the bottom. How can we include the people who are tainted in our party? Trinamoolisation of BJP will never happen,” he said.
