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80 TMC MLAs, 58 rebel, just 8 at her home meet: Numbers grow grimmer for Mamata Banerjee as she loses grip on party
The TMC is facing one of its worst crisis in 30 years of its existence after a rebellion by nearly three-fourths of its MLAs.
When the results for West Bengal assembly elections were announced on May 4, it turned out the TMC, which ruled the state for 15 years, was restricted to just 80 seats in the House of 294. But with recent implosion within the party, it seems that the election results were just the beginning of series of troubles for the Mamata Banerjee-led party.
This week, 58 party MLAs rebelled openly, staking claim to become the principal Opposition party in Bengal, vertically splitting the party. And when the leadership of the crisis-hit party called a meeting at chairperson Mamata's residence on Friday, only eight of the non-rebelling MLAs were present. These included Bina Mondal, Ashima Patra, Madan Mitra, Kunal Ghosh, Firhad Hakim, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, Biman Banerjee and Ashok Kumar Deb, according to news agency ANI.
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The attendees also included six MPs: Dola Sen, Mala Roy, Kalyan Banerjee, Abhishek Banerjee, Derek O'Brien and Sudip Bandyopadhyay. Notably, the TMC has 28 MPs in the Lok Sabha and 13 in the Rajya Sabha.
The rebellion
The rebellion is being led by now-expelled party legislator Ritabrata Banerjee, who announced on Wednesday after a meeting with the speaker that he had been appointed leader of the Opposition, plunging the party into an existential crisis.
This effectively marks the party's first split in 30 years of its existence since Mamata founded it upon breaking with the Congress.
Nearly half of the 34 Muslim lawmakers of the TMC backed Ritabrata Banerjee, a former student leader who was first expelled from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 2017 and sent to the Rajya Sabha by the TMC in 2024.
The rebels said they will request Mamata to be their “principal adviser” but would have no interaction with her nephew and party’s national general secretary Abhishek, who emerged as the party’s second-in-command in 2016, HT reported earlier.
“The TMC legislative party is a team of 58 MLAs who won on the TMC symbol. We are the real TMC now in the assembly,” said Ritabrata.
“Our claim has been accepted by the speaker,” he told reporters after meeting the speaker.
TMC rebellion to reach court
The TMC is planning legal action over the West Bengal assembly speaker's decision to appoint TMC rebel Ritabrata as the Leader of the Opposition, with the party MP Kalyan Banerjee terming the decision “illegal”.
“We have decided that 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,” Banerjee said. He further accused the BJP of “killing” TMC workers and lodging false cases against them.’
“We will fight on the streets, we will fight in Court,” Kalyan said after party leader and former CM Mamata Banerjee held a meeting at her residence in Kalighat area of Kolkata on Friday.
