58 TMC MPs disown Abhishek Banerjee, plead with Mamata; Ritabrata claims LoP status in Bengal

FIfty-eight Trinamool us congress lawmakers disowned the company’s superior general secretarial assistant Abhishek Banerjee, pleaded with chairperson Mamata Banerjee to suit their adviser, and staked claim on Wednesday to become the principal opposition party in the West Bengal assembly, with the leader of the rebel unit, expelled legislator Ritabrata Banerjee, announcing after a meeting with the speaker that he had been appointed leader of the Opposition, plunging the party into an existential crisis.With nearly three-fourths of the 80 legislators of the TMC backing the rebel group, the regional party effectively suffered a split, the first in its nearly three decades of existence. The development puts in danger the party’s popular grass-flower symbol and the party name, a virtual redux of the crisis that engulfed the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Maharashtra.Nearly half of the 34 Muslim lawmakers of the TMC backed Ritabrata Banerjee, a former student leader who was first expelled from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 2017 and sent to the Rajya Sabha by the TMC in2024. The rebels said they will request Mamata to be their principal adviser but would have no interaction with her nephew and party’s national general secretary Abhishek, who emerged as the party’s second-in-command in 2016. “The TMC legislative party is a team of 58 MLAs who won on the TMC symbol. We are the real TMC now in the assembly,” said Ritabrata. “Our claim has been accepted by the speaker,” he told reporters after meeting the speaker.Sandipan Saha, who was also expelled by the TMC on Monday, was appointed deputy leader of the Opposition, said Ritabrata.“The official letter was issued to the leader of the Opposition by my secretariat today,” Speaker Rathindra Nath Bose told HT.Also Read: ‘We are real TMC, 50 MLAs with us’: Rift out in open for Mamata's party in BengalInside the ‘forged’ signature rowOn May 19, the TMC named veteran lawmaker Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as the leader of the Opposition but on May 25, Ritabrata and Saha alleged that the letter issued by the party contained forged signatures, triggering a CID probe. The unprecedented development came 29 days after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 207 seats to the TMC’s 80. To escape action under the anti-defection law, the splinter group needed 54 MLAs, or two-thirds of the legislative strength.The speaker met the rebels behind closed doors at the assembly and accepted their letter around 2.30pm, said state assembly officials. The letter, written on plain paper, not the TMC’s letterhead, was not shared with the media. At around 4pm, Ritabrata held a press conference in the room allotted for the leader of the Opposition.“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 decision 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 the TMC after the BJP won 18 of Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats in 2019. Abhishek played a key role in I-PAC’s functioning. I-PAC offices in several states, including Bengal, were raided by federal agencies before the Bengal polls and one of its directors was arrested.TMC dissolves organisational committeesNeither Mamata nor Abhishek commented on the unprecedented crisis, but the party dissolved its organisational committees across all levels. “After careful consideration, 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 TMC said in a statement.“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,” the statement added.Mamata’s associate and TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said: “TMC was there, is there and will be there. An MLA expelled by the party cannot become the leader of the Opposition.”Akhruzzaman, who became the chief whip on Wednesday instead of Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim as the TMC originally proposed, 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.Targeting Abhishek, Ritabrata alleged that the TMC leader might lose his Lok Sabha membership because of the CID probe.“As a member of Parliament, he has given a letter with forged documents 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.”No BJP minister commented on the day’s development although 24 TMC lawmakers, including Ritabrata, attended an administrative meeting called by chief minister Suvendu Adhikari. Lawmakers loyal to Mamata, such as Ghosh and Hakim, also attended the meeting.BJP Lok Sabha member Jagannath Sarkar said, “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.”Ritabrata said that the rebel group will be different as an opposition party. “We will 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.”