Kolkata: It is now official that the Trinamool Congress has split a month after the party faced a landslide defeat in the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly elections.
Out of the total 80 Trinamool Congress legislators in the Assembly, 58 have revolted under the leadership of the expelled party legislators Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha.
On Wednesday, a new resolution, carrying the signatures of these 58 legislators, was submitted in the Assembly, claiming to be the actual representatives of Trinamool Congress. In the resolution, Ritabrata, the Trinamool Congress legislator from Uluberia (Purba) Assembly constituency in Howrah district, has been named as the Leader of Opposition (LoP).
In the same resolution, Trinamool Congress legislators have been named as the opposition deputy leaders. They are Sandipan Saha from Entally Assembly constituency in North Kolkata, Siuli Saha from Keshpur in West Midnapore district and Javed Ahmed Khan from Kasba in South 24 Parganas district.
Veteran Trinamool Congress legislator from Raghunathganj, Akhruzzaman, has been named in the resolution as the Chief Whip of the Trinamool Congress’ new block in the Assembly. However, in the resolution, the former West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, has been named as the supremo, the party president.
All 58 legislators whose signatures were in the resolution arrived at the Assembly premises one after another since morning. Thereafter, an emergency meeting of the rebel legislators was held, where the five names were endorsed for the five slots in the Assembly reserved for the opposition.
The 58 legislators led by Ritabrata then went to the Speaker's room and submitted the resolution. The Speaker accepted the resolution.
Last month, Trinamool Congress’ general secretary and the party’s Lok Sabha member, Abhishek Banerjee, had sent a letter to the office of the Speaker naming Sovandeb Chattopadhyay as the LoP, Nayna Bandopadhyay and Asima Patra as the two deputy leaders of the opposition and Firhad Hakim as the Chief Whip of Trinamool Congress’ legislative party in the Assembly.
However, the Speaker insisted that the resolution, carrying the signatures of the Trinamool Congress legislators and endorsing the four names for the Assembly slots, should be submitted along with the letter from Abhishek Banerjee. Thereafter, a resolution carrying the signatures of the Trinamool Congress legislators was submitted to the office of the Speaker. However, things started taking a dramatic turn after that, when Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha pointed out mismatches in the signatures of some party legislators. Both were expelled from Trinamool Congress earlier this week.
Soon after that, the Assembly secretariat handed over the investigation to the CID, which summoned Abhishek Banerjee for interrogation twice.
Meanwhile, rebellion started brewing within Trinamool Congress, which took a final shape on Wednesday with a new block formed, claiming to be the real representative of the Trinamool Congress.
Meanwhile, the Opposition parties in West Bengal seem to be enjoying the growing infighting within the Trinamool Congress that surfaced on the very first day of the year that was also the 27th foundation day anniversary of the party.
As the war of words between Trinamool Congress West Bengal President Subrata Bakshi and the party’s state spokesman Kunal Ghosh surfaced over Bakshi’s comments on the role of TMC’s General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee’s role in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, the Opposition parties have started saying that this growing infighting is the beginning of the process of Trinamool Congress getting wiped out. (IANS)
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