Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra on Thursday accused the breakaway faction of party lawmakers of betraying the electorate by aligning with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The rebel group of 58 out of the TMC's 80 newly elected MLAs had on Wednesday submitted a letter to Assembly Speaker Rathindranath Bose seeking to name expelled legislator Ritabrata Bandyopadhyay as the official Leader of the Opposition and Akhruzzaman as chief whip.
Earlier, the MLAs, led by expelled legislators Ritabrata Bandyopadhyay and Sandipan Saha, attended a meeting in the Assembly's Naushad Ali room on Wednesday, where they selected the LoP and Chief Whip before submitting the resolution along with the letter to the Speaker.
Moitra pointed out that the rebel MLAs won their seats entirely under the leadership and name of Mamata Banerjee, securing votes that were strictly anti-BJP. She noted that the TMC secured 41% of the vote under the party's symbol and Mamata Banerjee's name.
Challenging the rebels' claim of independence, Moitra stated they cannot simply claim they are free. She dared them to resign from their seats and fight elections fresh under what she mockingly termed the "Bijemool" symbol.
Moitra also targeted the Election Commission, accusing it of acting as a "pawn of the BJP," and criticised the behaviour of central forces and the alleged removal of voters from electoral rolls during the elections.
"The Election Commission acted as a pawn of the BJP. We all witnessed how the central forces behaved and how voters were removed from the electoral rolls. If we accept the people's mandate, we can see that the TMC secured 41% of the vote under Mamata Banerjee's name and the TMC's symbol. So, all those TMC MLAs who won under Mamata Banerjee's leadership won because of Mamata Banerjee's name. Those MLAs can't claim that they are free now; they must resign and fight under the Bijemool symbol. They won on anti-BJP votes, but now they will side with the BJP," she said.
Welcoming the exit of dissenters, the TMC MP asserted that the party doors are wide open for anyone wishing to leave, calling the current crisis an opportunity for a "purification" of the party.
"Mamata Banerjee started from scratch. There is no place for fear if you are fighting against the BJP. How can you claim that you are the original Trinamool? I want to say to all the workers that this is a party under Mamata Banerjee's leadership. Those who want to leave may do so. The door is open. There should be a purification of the party," she said.
(With inputs from ANI)