KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court on Thursday made some significant observations on the recognition of rebel Trinamool Congress MLA Ritabrata Bandyopadhyay as the leader of the Opposition (LoP), questioning whether the Speaker could recognise a LoP without taking the consent of the political party concerned.
Justice Krishna Rao raised the question while hearing a plea against the Speaker’s decision to recognise Bandyopadhyay as LoP and Akhruzzman, another rebel MLA, a Chief Whip at a time when the party leadership expelled the former.
The Trinamool Congress leadership led by the party supremo and former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expelled Bandyopadhyay, MLA from Uluberia Purba, and Sandipan Saha, another legislator from Entally for anti-party activities.
Veteran MLA Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay from Ballygunj seat in Kolkata, who was selected by the party leadership as the LoP in the House, moved the High Court on 8 June challenging the speaker’s decision to recognise Bandyopadhyay as the LoP.
Trinamool Congress MP and senior lawyer Kalyan Bandyopadhyay appearing for the petitioners argued that the party had officially nominated Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay for the post and had communicated its decision to the Speaker on several occasions. He also contended that the speaker ignored the party’s decision and instead acted on the support of 59 legislators backing a rival faction.
Justice Rao during hearing also observed that the person recognised as LoP was allegedly no longer a member of the party after being expelled and questioned the legal basis for such recognition.
The Trinamool Congress on 3 June suffered its first split in its 28-year history since its birth in 1998 after 58 MLAs belonging to the break-away faction of the party elected Bandyopadhyay as LoP and secured recognition from the speaker, landing Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool into its an unprecedented internal crisis.
The rebel camp led by Bandyopadhyay claimed that they were ‘real Trinamool’. Reacting to the proposed legal challenge, Bandyopadhyay dismissed the allegations and asserted that all constitutional and procedural requirements in connection with his selection as the LoP had been followed.
"All norms have been followed. There was a meeting convened by Mamata Banerjee. Please go and see how many legislators attended that meeting," he had told reporters, suggesting that the majority of elected representatives remained with their group.
The controversy related had erupted after Abhishek Banerjee, national general secretary of the party and MP from Diamond Harbour in south 24 Parganas district, wrote a letter armed with a resolution signed by the party MLAs during a meeting at Mamata’s Kalighat residence to the speaker selecting Chattopadhyay as the LoP in the Trinamool legislature party.
The controversy erupted after claims surfaced that signatures of several MLAs were affixed to related resolution copy despite their absence from the meeting, sparking a political row in West Bengal and prompting an investigation into alleged forgery. Both Badyopadhyay and Saha informed the matter to the speaker alleging signatures of several MLAs were forged.
