Kolkata: Down but not out.
Despite being ravaged by infighting and revolts, the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) refuses to give in without a fight.
At a meeting in the former chief minister’s residence on Friday, with just a handful of MLAs in attendance, TMC decided to move the Calcutta High Court challenging the West Bengal Speaker’s decision to appoint rebel MLA Ritabrata Banerjee as Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly. Ritabrata and fellow-MLA Sandipan Saha were expelled from the party for anti-party activities.
“The LoP appointed by the Speaker is illegal. We are approaching the court against this on Monday. We will file a petition before the High Court,” informed the party’s MP Kalyan Banerjee.
“We will fight against the manner in which BJP is killing TMC workers and lodging false cases against them. We will fight on the streets, we will fight in court,” he added.
The legal challenge comes days after 58 of TMC’s 80 elected MLAs backed Ritabrata and successfully staked claim to the Opposition benches in the Assembly. Rathindranath Bose, the Speaker, accepted rebels’ claim, ruling that the expulsions of Ritabrata and Sandipan were not valid under the party’s constitution.
However, Mamata & Co. argued that an expelled member cannot be recognised as Leader of the Opposition.
Ritabrata, meanwhile, claimed on Friday that some more MLAs will join his group.
There was also a buzz that around 20 of Trinamool’s MPs (28 in Lok Sabha and 13 in Rajya Sabha) will ditch the party in the days to come.
