Kolkata: In a striking turn of events late on Monday, the rebel “real Trinamool” group led by Ritabrata Banerjee, the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, removed Mamata Banerjee as party chairperson and Abhishek Banerjee as national general secretary in the state.
According to the rebel camp, Ritabrata Banerjee called a meeting at a hotel in New Town that was attended by around 60 MLAs and 70 councillors of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, who backed the decisions taken there.
At the gathering, Banerjee said the party was in a “constitutional crisis” and cited Article 20 of the TMC constitution, which he said requires the formation of a national working committee every three years, as reported by The New Indian Express.
The rebel faction said the last national working committee was formed on February 12, 2022, and its term ended on February 11 this year. Since no new committee was set up after that, the group argued that the party’s organisational structure had to be reworked.
The meeting first endorsed a 10-member national working committee comprising Arup Roy, Firhad Hakim, Aroop Biswas, Biplab Mitra, Akhruzzaman Ansari, Sabina Yasmin, Sandipan Saha, Rathin Ghosh, Javed Khan and Ritabrata Banerj
ee, before widening it to a 30-member body.
Arup Roy, the veteran MLA from Howrah Central, was picked as chairperson through a voice vote. Banerjee later told reporters that the special meeting had unanimously chosen Roy for the post.
A little later, the group named Biswas, Hakim, Ghosh and Yasmin as vice-chairpersons. Ritabrata Banerjee, Khan and Saha were made general secretaries, while Akhruzzaman Ansari was given charge of the treasurer’s post.
Banerjee said the process had been carried out according to the party constitution and would be sent to the Election Commission. He insisted the faction was acting within the rules and left it to the EC to decide what was valid or invalid.
He also said the new team would soon begin putting together organisational units at the district, state and spokesperson level. In a softer tone, he added that Mamata Banerjee would be welcome as chief advisor if she wished to take that role.
“If Mamata Banerjee wants to be chief advisor, she is most welcome,” he said.
When asked about Abhishek Banerjee, Ritabrata Banerjee dismissed the subject saying nothing had been discussed about him at the meeting.
Meanwhile, rebel MPs led by Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar are planning to approach the Supreme Court for the party symbol, even as the question of party assets remains open.
A few hours after the New Town meeting, the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress issued show-cause notices to the dissident MLAs who attended it.
The split had already been building for some time, with the Trinamool earlier expelling Ritabrata Banerjee of Uluberia Purba and Sandipan Saha of Entally for anti-party activities.
Both leaders had accused the party of irregularities in its internal resolution process and alleged that signatures of several MLAs were forged in connection with the election of Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as Leader of Opposition.