A fresh rebellion has surfaced within the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal, soon after the party’s defeat in the Assembly election. A petition signed by 59 TMC MLAs has been submitted to the Assembly Secretary seeking to appoint expelled MLA Ritabrata Banerjee as the Leader of Opposition (LoP).
The political backdrop is the BJP’s victory in the election, where it won 208 seats and formed the government, ending Mamata Banerjee’s 15-year rule. As the TMC attempts to regroup, internal divisions have intensified over the choice of the LoP.
Earlier, a meeting of TMC MLAs was held at Mamata Banerjee’s residence to decide the LoP. A support letter backing Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay was submitted to the Speaker, but Ritabrata Banerjee and MLA Sandipan Saha later complained that several signatures on the letter were forged, pushing the issue into a CID probe.
During the inquiry, some MLAs reportedly told CID officials that the signatures attributed to them were not theirs. The party leadership then expelled Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha for alleged anti-party activity, after which Ritabrata Banerjee began mobilising support against the leadership.
Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha personally submitted the new petition to the Assembly Secretary. MLAs backing the move said 59 signatures have been collected, with one more expected. The report also notes that since more than two-thirds of the MLAs have signed, action under anti-defection provisions may not be possible, and the dissident MLAs are not believed to be planning a new party.
