KOLKATA: In a major escalation of the rebellion within the Trinamool Congress, 58 MLAs on Wednesday submitted a letter to Assembly Speaker Rathindranath Bose proposing expelled legislator Ritabrata Bandyopadhyay as the Leader of the Opposition, strengthening the faction's bid to be recognised as the party's "real" legislative wing.
The rebel MLAs submitted the letter to Assembly Speaker Rathindranath Bose on Wednesday, proposing Bandyopadhyay, the MLA from Uluberia Purba in Howrah district, as the LoP and Akhrujjaman, the MLA from Raghunathganj, as the Chief Whip.
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.
It is learnt that Bose's office has accepted the letter and reportedly asked the rebel group to wait until 4 pm, when a decision on the recognition of Bandyopadhyay as the LoP and Akhrujjaman as the Chief Whip is expected to be announced.
The Trinamool Congress leadership had expelled Bandyopadhyay and Saha, the MLA from Entally constituency in Kolkata, on charges of anti party activities.
With the submission of a letter carrying the signatures of more than two thirds of the party's 78 MLAs, the rebel group's claim to the Joraphool symbol as the "real Trinamool" is expected to gain momentum, signalling a major setback for Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress in the Assembly.
The Trinamool Congress won 80 of the state's 294 Assembly seats in the recently held elections. Following the expulsions of Bandyopadhyay and Saha, the party's strength in the House fell to 78.
Earlier, Abhishek Banerjee, the party's national general secretary and MP from Diamond Harbour in South 24 Parganas district, had written to Bose proposing Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, the party MLA from Ballygunge in Kolkata, as the LoP. However, the proposal was not accepted following allegations of forged signatures of several Trinamool Congress MLAs.
Assembly authorities subsequently lodged a complaint with Hare Street police station over the alleged forgery. With the approval of Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) was constituted to probe the matter.
The SIT has already questioned several MLAs, including Nayona Bandyopadhyay, Kunal Ghosh and Baharul Islam. The CID has also summoned Abhishek Banerjee, Mamata Banerjee's nephew, for questioning.
Minister Tapas Roy, who defected from the Trinamool Congress to the BJP, had signalled an imminent upheaval on Tuesday through a social media post.
"The situation is similar to Maharashtra, where (sic) Trinamool's Ritabrata (Banerjee) has approached the Assembly Speaker with about 50 TMC MLAs. Khyala hobey," Roy wrote.
In Maharashtra in 2022, Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde broke away with most of the party's MLAs, formed a separate group in the Assembly and successfully secured control of the parent party's name and symbol. The move toppled Uddhav Thackeray's Sena led government, and Shinde later became Chief Minister with BJP support.
Sources in the rebel bloc said Bandyopadhyay and Saha had been systematically collecting the signatures of two thirds of the party's MLAs, the threshold required to avoid disqualification under the anti defection law.
If the rebels can demonstrate the required numbers, the Speaker is expected to recognise the group as the "real" Trinamool legislature party.
More than 50 rebel MLAs attended Wednesday's meeting in the Assembly and signed the letter.
Bandyopadhyay had appeared to hint at the development on Tuesday when he publicly demanded that all Trinamool MLAs from his home district of Howrah attend Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari's administrative review meeting on Wednesday morning.
With the letter proposing Bandyopadhyay as the LoP, the rebel faction is also expected to claim ownership of the party itself, raising the prospect of Mamata Banerjee losing the Jora Ghas Phool symbol, which she has long claimed to have designed nearly three decades ago.
The latest development follows indications of growing dissent within the party. On Sunday afternoon, only around 20 of the Trinamool Congress's then 80 MLAs attended a key meeting called by Mamata Banerjee at her residence.
By Sunday night, the rebels had allegedly secured the support of around 30 MLAs, according to sources.
Earlier on Tuesday, two Trinamool Congress MLAs, Kunal Ghosh and Ashima Patra, attempted to deliver a letter by hand to the Speaker, but alleged that, in the absence of Bose in his office, his office secretary refused to accept it, stating he was under verbal instructions not to receive any letters from them.
Ghosh later said he left Banerjee's letter at the table of the Speaker's office and subsequently e-mailed it to Bose while also sending it via registered post.
Wednesday’s development came amid a CID probe into an alleged signature forgery case after the two expelled legislators, Bandyopadhyay and Saha informed the Speaker on May 27 that no resolution regarding the selection of the LoP had been adopted at the party’s May 6 meeting, contrary to the claim made in the party’s official communication.
