This comes a day after the Ritabrata-led rebel bloc staked claim as the 'real TMC' in a meeting with Election Commission officials on July 2.

This comes a day after the Ritabrata-led rebel bloc staked claim as the 'real TMC' in a meeting with Election Commission officials on July 2.

This comes a day after the Ritabrata-led rebel bloc staked claim as the 'real TMC' in a meeting with Election Commission officials on July 2.

In a fresh twist in the battle for control between factions of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), the Ritabrata side on Friday "took over" the party's office in Metropolitan, Kolkata.

Joined by senior leaders such as Firhad Hakim, Javed Khan, Sandipan Saha, and Akhruzzaman, members of the rebel bloc visited the party office and held a meeting there.

"We are the Trinamool Congress and this office belongs to the Trinamool Congress. There is an emotional connection between the party and this office," Akhruzzaman said at the meeting, as per a PTI report.

He added that the rebel leaders had spoken to the landlord of Trinamool Bhavan about rent-related matters.

Notably, the Trinamool Bhavan office at Kolkata's Metropolitan has been the party's operational headquarters since 2022, after the TMC shifted there when its original office at EM Bypass was undergoing reconstruction.

Mamata Banerjee loyalist Kunal Ghosh lashed out at what he called "trespassing" by the rebel bloc leaders, questioning why they allegedly "locked" the party office after the meeting.

"There was absolutely no need to put a lock on the premises. Furthermore, expelled members have no right to enter the party office ... We could have easily broken the lock they installed, but we refrained from any illegal or irresponsible actions. Although we had appealed to the police, they allowed the intruders to lock the premises and then stood guard to protect that lock," he alleged.

Apart from the lock, local media reports say that the banner of Mamata Banerjee on the gate was also replaced with that of Howrah Central MLA Arup Roy, who was earlier chosen as the leader of the rebel bloc of MLAs.

This is seen as the rebel bloc's latest attempt to assert its identity as the "real TMC", and comes just a day after it met the full bench of the Election Commission (EC) in Delhi.

The Thursday meeting saw the Ritabrata-led delegation meet with Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and the two Election Commissioners, where the rebel bloc again staked its claim for legitimacy.

The Mamata Banerjee camp, however, lashed out at news of the meeting, arguing that expelled leaders had no authority to represent it before the EC.

Both factions have now been asked by the EC to justify all aspects of their control over the party by 5:30 PM on July 6.

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