Who is Ritabrata Banerjee? TMC MLA leading ‘rebel’ faction and likely to be Bengal LoP

FSea-ear westward Bengal chief government minister Mamata Banerjee and her company Trinamool us congress seems to be facing one the biggest crises in recent years as the party might be headed for a split over disagreements on who will become the Leader of Opposition in the state assembly.Ritabrata Banerjee, a TMC MLA who was expelled by the party on Monday for ‘anti-party activities’ along with Sandipan Saha, emerged as the central figure in the ongoing infighting in Trinamool which might lead to a Shiv Sena-style split.Ritabrata currently enjoys the backing of a majority of TMC MLAs to become the state assembly LoP. As many as 59 dissident Trinamool Congress (TMC) legislators, led by Ritabrata, arrived at the state assembly in Kolkata on Wednesday to stake claim as the main opposition party. Notably, several of these 59 rebel MLAs face probes by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate.Also read: Mamata's TMC stares at split as most MLAs rally behind expelled legislator for leader of oppositionWho is Ritabrata BanerjeeRitabrata Banerjee is a member of legislative assembly in West Bengal. He won from Uluberia Purba constituency on Trinamool Congress’ ticket by defeating Bharatiya Janata Party’s Rudra Prosad Banerjee with 11,838 in state assembly polls held earlier this year in which, TMC faced a crushing defeat as Bharatiya Janata Party won with a landslide.Ritabrata was a CPI(M) MP in the Rajya Sabha till 2017. Expulsion from TMC is not the first time he has faced such an action. In 2017 too, Ritabrata was expelled from CPI (M) for anti-party activities. He then joined TMC and was sent to Rajya Sabha in 2024 by the party for 15 months.Also read: West Bengal: 59 rebel TMC legislators to stake claim as main opposition partyHis social media reads, “A proud Bengali & Indian. Incidentally MLA from Uluberia Purba, West Bengal & 2 times Former Member of Indian Parliament.”How forged signature claims led to infightingThe infighting started over a forged signature scandal in the party dubbed ‘signgate’. The TMC recommended veteran MLA Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay’s name for the position of the Leader of the Opposition and the party’s chief whip in West Bengal state assembly on May 6. Soon after, allegations started emerging that on the documents submitted, several of TMC legislators’ signatures were either forged or placed without their proper consent, after which, Bengal Assembly Speaker Rathindra Bose refused to accept the recommendation.Then came a clarification from West Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari, who refuted claims that BJP had a role to play in the matter and said that two of the party’s MLAs had submitted a written complaint to the speaker regarding the matter.“Two TMC MLAs, Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha, had given a written complaint to the Speaker. The BJP has no role in this,” he said, following which, both of them were expelled over allegations of ‘anti-party activities’ by the TMC, bringing the party’s tally down to 78 in the state assembly from 80.The entire incident is now being probed by the state’s Crime Investigation Department (CID).It appeared that Mamata, who lost to BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari in state assembly polls, has may be losing grip over her party’s MLAs after only 20 of TMC MLAs showed up at a meeting she had called on May 31.‘I still belong to Trinamool’Ahead of going to West Assembly speaker Rathindra Bose to stake claim as the official main opposition party in the state assembly with 58 MLAs, Ritabrata Banerjee told Hindustan Times that he feels he still belongs to Trinamool Congress but criticised how the party leadership for “losing touch” at the grassroots level.“I believe I still belong to the Trinamool. Those who claim that they are running Trinamool, which means grassroot, have actually lost touch with the grassroot level. One person tried to corporatize the party. The people didn’t accept it. People want a better version of TMC,” he said.It also needs to be noted that in the documents submitted by the rebel MLAs, they have described Mamata Banerjee as their “chairperson”, pointing that maybe it is not Mamata who is at the dissidents’ target but the legislature party’s leadership structure, reported news agency PTI.It also cited sources as saying that the rebellion camp also proposed a new leadership structure for the legislature party, with Ritabrata Banerjee as the leader and Akhruzzaman as the chief whip.(With inputs from Saubhadra Chatterji)