In a major development, Ritabrata Banerjee, the TMC MLA who was ousted by party chief Mamata Banerjee for anti-party activities, reached the West Bengal Assembly with the signatures of these 59 MLAs. Banerjee’s move comes as a major setback for Mamata Banerjee, who can now claim the support of just 20 MLAs, hinting that a split is in the offing.
This is despite Mamata’s LOP nominee and senior Trinamool Congress leader Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay asserting that the majority of the party MLAs would remain with Mamata Banerjee.
Speculations were rife that the split would happen after the protest meeting called by Mamata was attended by just eight MLAs and six MPs. A day before, the former Chief Minister had called an emergency meeting at her Kalighat residence, which was attended by just 20 MLAs. Not many MLAs also rallied to condemn the attack on Diamond Harbour MP and Mamata’s nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, at Sonarpur.
While Mamata was organising a protest meet, reports emerged that Ritabrata and his MLAs were convening a secret meeting at a hotel. However, Ritabrata claimed that the news of a secret meeting with MLAs in a hotel was completely baseless and even challenged the media to check his phone’s 'tower location' to reassert his claim.
Now that Ritabrata has approached the Speaker with 59 signatures, the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly will have to decide who the Leader of the Opposition will be.
That said, sources say that the agitating group has no plans to break the Trinamool right now. Initially, they will form a separate bloc and propose Ritabrata Banerjee as the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly instead of Shobhandeb Chatterjee. After that, they will decide on the next strategy according to the situation.
Ritabrata too has made it clear that despite being expelled from the party, his loyalty to Mamata Banerjee has not diminished. “Mamata is my leader,” he told reporters. Mamata too has claimed on social media that it is never possible to break the Trinamool.
The TMC won 80 MLAs in the 294-member assembly this election.
Meanwhile, the CID will investigate the claims of TMC MLAs, including Ritabrata, that their signatures were forged in the letter submitted by Abhishek Banerjee before the Speaker. The letter was produced after Speaker asked for a proposal from the Trinamool as the opposition party with the name of the Leader of the Opposition.
