Amid heated politics in West Bengal, a leader recently suspended by the Trinamool Congress claimed that 50 party MLAs were united, meeting in a hotel recently, and forming a two-thirds majority. The statements made by suspended TMC leader Riju Dutta on Tuesday added new suspense to the future of TMC chief Mamata Banerjee and her party in Bengal, weeks after she suffered a major defeat at the hands of the BJP.
Giving details about the ongoing ‘Signgate scandal’ that led to a CID probe, Dutta, in an interview with news agency ANI, spoke about two expelled Trinamool MLAs, Ritabrata Bandopadhyay and Sandipan Saha, who had alleged that their signatures were forged in documents submitted to the West Bengal Assembly.
He also said that some party leaders will approach the Speaker this afternoon to raise their issues.
Mamata staring at a model from Maharashtra in Bengal?
Riju Dutta said the “Maharashtra model” was being applied in Bengal, where he claimed that around 50 MLAs united to form a two-thirds majority. “We are a two-thirds majority. About 50 MLAs are with us. Since we are the real Trinamool Congress, the Leader of the Opposition will be Ritabrata Bandopadhyay, not Subhandeep Chattopadhyay,” Dutta said, adding that since the majority was formed by the said legislators, they should also be allowed to retain the party symbol.
He went on to say that the “Shiv Sena Maharashtra model” currently exists in Bengal.
Dutta may have been referring to the split of the Shiv Sena in 2022 into two factions, after which the Maha Vikas Aghadi government led by Uddhav Thackeray was ousted from power in Maharashtra. A struggle for the party’s name and symbol broke out at that time as well, which eventually went in favor of the Eknath Shinde-led faction, given the majority of its legislators in the state assembly.
However, Mamata Banerjee is not done addressing the internal crisis her party finds itself in, and has planned a protest in the state on Tuesday against an alleged attack against her nephew Abhishek Banerjee.
TMC rift is out in the open
Riju Dutta’s statements are not the first sign of a very public rift within the Trinamool Congress. On Monday, the party expelled Sandeepan Saha and Ritabrata Banerjee after 61 of the party’s 80 members skipped key meetings. The legislators were also accused of engaging in anti-party activities.
But the timing of those expulsions raised eyebrows, because they came almost immediately after lawmakers publicly questioned the “forged” signatures. The scandal relates to documents submitted to the West Bengal Assembly regarding the appointment of the leader of the opposition and chief whip of the party after the 2026 elections, which the TMC lost.
It remains to be seen how the row will develop in Bengal, where several party leaders are under scrutiny and the CID is investigating the alleged scandal.
