Kolkata, June 2: After suffering a significant defeat in the West Bengal Assembly elections, Trinamool Congress leader and former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is set to take to the streets. She will lead a one-day protest on Tuesday. However, uncertainty looms over the participation of party legislators during this demonstration.
According to the schedule, Mamata Banerjee will hold the protest from 2 PM to 4 PM. The focus will be on issues such as the demolition of illegal buildings and the removal of vendors illegally occupying railway land. This protest is also being linked to the recent attack on Abhishek Banerjee.
This will be Mamata Banerjee’s first public appearance since her party’s heavy loss in the recent Assembly elections. Consequently, questions arise regarding how many of her party’s legislators will join her at this event, especially following the expulsion of two legislators on Monday.
The Trinamool Congress expelled Sandipan Saha from Entally in North Kolkata and Ritabrata Banerjee from Uluberia (East) in Howrah district on Monday. This action came after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari announced that the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) had initiated an inquiry into discrepancies in the signatures of Trinamool Congress legislators. Both Sandipan and Ritabrata had informed Assembly Speaker Rathindra Bose about the inconsistencies in the signatures.
Since then, both expelled legislators have been actively working to rally support among several other Trinamool Congress members. Speculation is rife following a meeting that lasted until late Monday night, which took place at a hostel on Kaid Street in central Kolkata, involving the two expelled legislators and two other senior members, Javed Ahmed Khan and Seuli Saha.
Both Seuli Saha and Khan were part of the previous state cabinet led by Mamata Banerjee. Saha’s responses regarding the meeting’s agenda have further fueled speculation about potential major political upheavals within the Trinamool Congress in the coming days.
“We came to check the rooms allocated to us at the MLA hostel. There, we met Sandipan and Ritabrata. We had a chat over a cup of tea. Remember, they have been expelled from the party, but not as legislators,” Saha stated.
Since Sandipan and Ritabrata have been expelled from the party, they will remain legislators for the remainder of their five-year term, and the anti-defection law will not apply to them.
Insiders from the party have indicated that besides Khan and Saha, several other Trinamool Congress legislators are in contact with the expelled members. In this context, the attendance of party legislators at Mamata Banerjee’s first public event post-election on Tuesday will signal the ongoing turmoil within the Trinamool Congress.
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