West Bengal Assembly Speaker on Wednesday accepted the TMC rebel faction's bid to make expelled party leader Ritabrata Banerjee as the Leader of Opposition, in a major setback to party supremo and former chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
Addressing the media after meeting the Speaker, Ritabrata Banerjee said two more TMC MLAs are expected to join his faction, raising the total number of legislators supporting him to 60.
"The TMC legislative party is a team of 58 MLAs who won on the TMC symbol...Two other MLAs are likely to join us. Once they formally extend their support, our strength will rise further," Ritabrata Banerjee said.
He said the Speaker had accepted the new composition of the legislature party and that the office meant for the Leader of the Opposition had been opened for him.
Banerjee also appealed to party supremo Mamata Banerjee to guide the legislature party while also stressing that the dissident camp had little political engagement with TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee.
"We would request Mamata Banerjee to play the role of the chief adviser of the legislative party," he said.
The rebel camp also unveiled a new leadership structure for the legislature party.
Banerjee announced that Akhruzzaman had been appointed chief whip, while veteran legislators Javed Ahmed Khan, Sandeepan Saha, Sabina Yasmin and Shiuli Saha would serve as deputy leaders.
"The letters communicating these appointments have already been submitted to the Speaker," he said.
As many as 58 TMC MLAs had earlier on Wednesday submitted a letter to Assembly Speaker Rathindranath Bose proposing Bandyopadhyay as the Leader of the Opposition, strengthening the faction's bid to be recognised as the party's "real" legislative wing.
Earlier, Abhishek Banerjee had written to the Speaker proposing Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, the party MLA from Ballygunge in Kolkata, as the LoP.
However, the proposal was not accepted by the Speaker, following allegations of forged signatures of several TMC MLAs.
Meanwhile, hinting at an extremely difficult time for Mamata Banerjee, shortly after the announcement of the LoP, her close aide and senior TMC leader Firhad Hakim stepped down from the post of Kolkata Mayor.
Hakim had earlier sought permission from Mamata to resign from the post, citing difficulties in functioning under the BJP government.
Mamata had asked him not to resign then but allowed him to step down when he repeated the request on Wednesday, according to MLA Kunal Ghosh.
(With inputs from PTI)