58 TMC rebels are Bengal’s main Oppn party; Ritabrata Banerjee their leader

IN a monolithic setback to Trinamool us congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee, w Bengal gathering verbalizer Rathindra Nath Bose on Wednesday recognised 58 rebel (TMC) legislators as the principal opposition party in the 294-member House.Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha, the two lawmakers expelled by the TMC on Monday, have been recognised as the leader and deputy leader of the Opposition respectively. Bose said his secretariat had issued the official letter in this connection.The unprecedented development in Bengal politics came 29 days after the Bharatiya Janata Party wrested 207 seats against the TMC’s 80.The speaker met the rebels behind closed doors at the assembly and accepted their letter around 2:30 pm. The letter, written on plain paper, not the TMC’s letterhead, was not shared with the media.Ritabrata Banerjee said: “TMC’s West Bengal legislative party in the 88th assembly has no leader. We oppose authoritarian leadership. We are a team of 58 as of now. Two more MLAs are currently out of station. They will announce their decision later. We are not taking any responsibility for the 20 other TMC MLAs.”Ritabrata declared that they wanted TMC chairperson Mamata Banerjee to be their principal adviser but would have nothing to do with her nephew, TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee who has been the party’s second-in-command since 2016.“Mamata Banerjee is a tall leader. We appeal to her to be our principal adviser. We can play a positive and constructive role as the opposition with her advice. If we have to vote against a bill we will, but we won’t walk out to help someone else,” he said.“Abhishek Banerjee has nothing to do with the TMC legislative party or this assembly. Our decison was not taken at any corporate office. It was not thrust upon us or imposed by an advisory company. This is a fight against individualism,” Ritabrata said, indirectly referring to the Indian Political Action Forum (I-Pac) which was hired by TMC after the BJP wrested 18 of Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats in 2019. Abhishek closely coordinated with I-Pac.Ahead of the Bengal elections, I-Pac offices in several states, including Bengal, were raided by federal agencies and one of its directors was arrested.Neither Mamata nor Abhishek Banerjee commented on the crisis but the party dissolved its organisational committees across all levels.In a statement, TMC said it has been decided that all committees of the All India Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, as well as all its frontal organisations, shall stand dissolved with immediate effect.“The party will undertake a comprehensive exercise of introspection, performance review and organisational assessment at every level. Based on the findings of this exercise, the organisational structure of the parent body and all frontal organisations will be reconstituted and announced in due course. The party remains committed to strengthening its organisation and preparing it to meet future challenges with renewed vigour and purpose,” it said.TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh trashed the speaker’s decision. “TMC was there, is there and will be there. An MLA expelled by the party cannot become the leader of the opposition,” Ghosh said.Assembly officials said the budget session will commence on June 18.Akhruzzaman, who was appointed the chief whip on Wednesday instead of Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim as proposed by the TMC earlier, said the rebels took the extreme step to save the party from becoming a laughing stock.“We are all TMC MLAs. Mamata Banerjee is our leader. But why did we come to this point? Our leadership failed to select the leader of the Opposition in the proper manner. The party has become a laughing stock. We came forward to save its face. We appeal to Mamata Banerjee to recognise us and guide us,” Akhruzzaman said, a reference to the Mamata-led TMC’s letter that named Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as the assembly’s leader of the opposition (LoP). The letter claimed a resolution was passed by the TMC legislature party on May 19 in support of Chattopadhyay. It was signed by Abhishek Banerjee.But a May 25 complaint by Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha insisted that this wasn’t true and that some of the signatures on the communication were forged.Ritabrata claimed that Abhishek Banerjee might lose his Lok Sabha membership because of the police probe the speaker sought into the document. The chief minister later handed the case to the CID.“As a member of Parliament, he has given a letter with forged document to the assembly speaker, the custodian of the House. If the forgery is proved then the speaker can write, if he deems fit, to the Lok Sabha Speaker to cancel the membership of Abhishek Banerjee. He has no connection with Bengal residents. He was hiding for 26 days after the polls. After being beaten up (by a mob at Sonarpur on May 30 ) like a thief he wrote to the Centre for security,” Ritabrata said.No BJP minister commented on the day’s development although 24 rebel TMC MLAs, including the LoP, attended an administrative meeting called by the chief minister. To be sure, MLAs loyal to Mamata Banerjee, such as Kunal Ghosh and Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim also attended the meeting.BJP Lok Sabha member Jagannath Sarkar said this was “inevitable”.“TMC emerged as an opposition party but after coming to power without any principle or ideology the party only indulged in corruption and nepotism. This was inevitable,” he said.Ritabrata Banerjee claimed that the rebel group would “play the role of a positive and responsible opposition”.“If the government does anything wrong we will fight inside and outside the assembly, but if it plays a positive role then we won’t hesitate to give our compliments. Opposition will not be just for opposition’s sake,” he said.