Kolkata, June 4: The first meeting of the newly formed faction of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) legislative party in West Bengal will take place on Thursday. According to assembly records, this faction is now recognized as an official opposition group in the state.
The meeting, set to occur within the assembly premises, will be chaired by Ritabrata Banerjee, the expelled TMC MLA from Uluberia (East) in the Howrah district, adjacent to Kolkata.
Assembly records indicate that Ritabrata is now the official leader of the TMC legislative party’s new faction and also serves as the official leader of the opposition.
A proposal to designate Ritabrata as the leader of the opposition received support from 58 TMC legislators, who signed the proposal, which was accepted by Speaker Rathindranath Bose on Wednesday. However, a total of 60 rebel legislators are expected to attend this meeting.
This development means that the original TMC faction, which remains loyal to former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her nephew, party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, has now dwindled to just 20 members.
The assembly elections held on May 4 resulted in a significant defeat for the TMC, reducing their seats in the 294-member West Bengal assembly to just 80.
Political observers believe that the manner in which Ritabrata and his associates orchestrated the rebellion, leading to the TMC’s split on Wednesday, was part of a calculated strategy.
A political analyst from the city stated, “Initially, Ritabrata and his fellow MLA Sandipan Saha from the Entally assembly seat informed the Speaker’s office about discrepancies in the signatures of several legislators on the original proposal submitted by the undivided TMC for key assembly positions reserved for the opposition. As soon as the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) began investigating these discrepancies, the seeds of rebellion were sown, ultimately leading to the party’s split established by Mamata Banerjee.”
According to the analyst, even after forming the new faction, Ritabrata and his colleagues are actively working to further divide the original group and create a rift between Mamata Banerjee and her nephew. “On one hand, Ritabrata is urging Mamata Banerjee to serve as an advisor for the new faction in the West Bengal assembly, while on the other hand, his team is indirectly demanding the removal of her nephew from the party.”
The formation of the new faction’s leadership team was done with a specific approach to ensure representation from various communities.
The political analyst added, “Leader of the opposition Ritabrata comes from an upper-caste Brahmin family. Among the three deputy leaders of the opposition, Shiuli Saha is a woman from the Scheduled Caste, and Javed Ahmed Khan is a Muslim. The third deputy leader, Sandipan, hails from the business community. Finally, the chief whip of the new TMC legislative faction in the West Bengal assembly, Akhruzzaman, is also a Muslim.”
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