In a major setback to Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal Assembly Speaker Rathendra Nath Bose on Wednesday recognized 58 rebel TMC legislators as the main opposition party in the 294-member House.
Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandiban Saha, the lawmakers expelled by the TMC on Monday, were recognized as the leader and deputy leader of the opposition respectively. Boss said that his secretariat issued the official letter in this regard.
The unprecedented development in Bengali politics came weeks after the Bharatiya Janata Party won 207 seats compared to the TMC’s 80 seats.
The spokesman met the rebels behind closed doors in the council and accepted their message at around 2:30 p.m. The letter, written on plain paper, not the TMC’s official paper, was not shared with the media.
Ritabrata Banerjee said, “TMC’s legislative party in West Bengal in the 88th Assembly has no leader. We are against authoritarian leadership. We are a team of 58 members so far. There are currently two more MLAs out of station. They will announce their decision later. We do not take any responsibility for the other 20 MLAs of TMC.”
Ritabrata announced that they want TMC chief Mamata Banerjee to be their chief advisor but she will not have anything to do with her nephew, TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee who has been the party’s second-in-command since 2016.
“Mamata Banerjee is a tall leader. We appeal to her to be our chief advisor. We can play a positive and constructive role as the opposition through her advice. If we have to vote against a bill, we will do so, but we will not withdraw to help someone else,” he said.
“Abhishek Banerjee has nothing to do with the TMC Legislative Party or this Assembly. Our decision was not taken in any corporate office. It was not imposed on us or imposed by a consultancy firm. It was not imposed on us or imposed by a consultancy firm. It is not a matter of interest,” Ritabrata said, in an indirect reference to the Indian Political Action Forum (I-Pac) which was appointed by the TMC after the BJP wrested 18 of the 42 Bengal Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 elections. Abhishek coordinated Close with I-Pac.
Before the elections, federal agencies raided I-Pac offices in several states, including Bengal, before the Bengal elections, and one of its directors was arrested.
Neither Mamata nor Abhishek Banerjee commented on the crisis but the party has dissolved its organizational committees at all levels.
It has been decided to dissolve all All India Trinamool Congress committees in West Bengal, as well as all its front organisations, with immediate effect, the TMC said in a statement.
The statement said, “The party will conduct a comprehensive introspection exercise, performance review, and organizational evaluation at all levels. Based on the results of this exercise, the organizational structure of the parent body and all front organizations will be reshaped and announced in a timely manner. The party remains committed to strengthening its organization and preparing it to face future challenges with renewed strength and purpose.”
Kunal Ghosh, TMC state general secretary, rejected the decision. “The TMC was there, it is there and it will be there,” Ghosh said. “The MLA that was expelled by the party cannot become the leader of the opposition.”
Assembly officials said the budget session will begin on June 18.
Akhiruzzaman, who was appointed chief whip on Wednesday in place of Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim as suggested by the TMC earlier, said the rebels took the extreme step to save the party from becoming a laughing stock.
“We are all TMC MLAs. Mamata Banerjee is our leader. But why have we reached this point? Our leadership has failed to choose the leader of the opposition in the right way,” Akhiruzzaman said. The party has become a laughing stock. We stepped up to save face. We appeal to Mamata Banerjee to recognize us and guide us,” he said, referring to the Mamata-led TMC’s letter called
Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly (LoP). The letter claimed that the TMC Legislative Council party had passed a resolution in support of Chattopadhyay.
But the complaint filed on May 19 by Ritabrata Banerjee and Sundipan Saha insisted that this was not true and that some of the signatures on the letter were forged.
Ritabrata claimed that the TMC leader may lose his Lok Sabha membership due to the CID probe ordered by Prime Minister Suvendu Adhikari in the document.
“As a Member of Parliament, he has submitted a letter with a forged document to the Speaker of the Assembly, the custodian of the House. If the forgery is proven, the Speaker can, if he deems it fit, write to the Speaker of the Lok Sabha to cancel the membership of Abhishek Banerjee. He has no connection with the people of Bengal. He was in hiding for 26 days after the elections. After he was beaten up (by a mob in Sonarpur on May 30) as a thief, he wrote to the Centre,” Ritabrata said. Security.
No BJP minister commented on today’s development though 24 rebel TMC MLAs, including the LoP, attended a departmental meeting called by the Prime Minister. To be sure, MLAs loyal to Mamata Banerjee, like Kunal Ghosh and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, also attended the meeting.
BJP Lok Sabha member Jagannath Sarkar said this was “inevitable”.
“The TMC emerged as an opposition party, but after coming to power without any principle or ideology, the party only indulged in corruption and nepotism. This was inevitable,” he said.
Ritabrata Banerjee claimed that the rebel group “will play the role of a positive and responsible opposition.”
He said, “If the government makes any mistake, we will fight inside and outside the council, but if it plays a positive role, we will not hesitate to offer our greetings. The opposition will not be for the sake of the opposition only.”
