Kolkata | West Bengal minister Tapas Roy on Tuesday claimed that the TMC was heading towards a split, even as the opposition party insisted that the majority of its MLAs remained with its supremo and former CM Mamata Banerjee.
The political buzz intensified amid reports that a large section of TMC legislators could break away under the leadership of expelled MLA Ritabrata Banerjee.
Speaking to reporters outside the assembly, Roy claimed the Trinamool Congress had accommodated people with little political experience and that internal contradictions were now surfacing.
Asserting that the TMC was undergoing an "inevitable process of fragmentation", the Maniktala MLA claimed the party, which ruled West Bengal for the last 15 years, would eventually disappear from the state's political landscape.
"There is growing dissatisfaction among many leaders and legislators. The developments indicate that the party is heading towards a split, a situation similar to what happened in Maharashtra," claimed the veteran leader, who switched over to the BJP from the TMC in 2024.
BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya alleged that the TMC was never a democratic party.
"It is unfortunate that after such a long struggle, when we have come to power, there may be no democratic opposition. Whether the TMC remains intact or breaks apart is not our concern. We have no connection with their internal crisis," he said.
Senior TMC leader Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, whom the party has nominated as the leader of the opposition, however, dismissed the speculation and alleged that attempts were being made by the ruling dispensation to engineer defections and destabilise the opposition party.
"Under intense pressure from the ruling government, some people are being compelled to make statements about forged signatures. There are some who are trying to go against the TMC as the ruling party is pumping money. We are constantly keeping an eye on the situation," he told PTI.
That nomination, however, remains under CID scrutiny over alleged forged signatures of a section of TMC MLAs.
"There may be a few who succumb to pressure, but there is no fear that a large rebellion will take place. The majority of MLAs will remain with Mamata Banerjee, and the old guard will continue to be firmly in control of the Trinamool Congress. The twin-flower symbol ('jora ghas phool') will remain with Mamata Banerjee," he said.
Expelled MLA Ritabrata Banerjee, while speaking to reporters after emerging from the assembly premises, acknowledged that he had met some MLAs at the MLA Hostel and shared puffed rice with them.
Banerjee said he preferred to "live by the day" and refused to comment on speculation that more than 50 MLAs could come under his fold.
He also claimed that no resolution had been adopted for electing Shobandeb Chattopadhyay as the Leader of the Opposition and asserted that the document he had signed was merely an attendance sheet.
The party has been "hijacked by I-PAC and no longer belongs to Mamata Banerjee", he claimed.
TMC MLA and spokesperson Kunal Ghosh alleged that the office of the Assembly Speaker had refused to accept a letter, endorsing party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee's endorsement of Chattopadhyay as the LoP, he sought to submit on Tuesday.
Ghosh claimed that he and fellow TMC MLA Ashima Patra had gone to the Speaker's office to submit the letter, but were informed that no communication from them would be received.
"Do they want to conceal objections to be recorded for some misdeed?" Ghosh questioned.
Kamarhati MLA Madan Mitra said that the people of West Bengal remained firmly with Mamata Banerjee.
While there has been no official confirmation of any split, political circles were abuzz with reports of meetings involving dissident MLAs at a hotel in Kolkata and at the MLA Hostel over the past few days.
The TMC had won 80 seats in the 294-member Assembly election. However, two MLAs were expelled on Monday for alleged anti-party activities.
A political party requires the support of at least 10 per cent of the members of the 294-member West Bengal Assembly -- or a minimum of 29 MLAs -- to stake claim to the post of the leader of the opposition and seek formal recognition as the principal opposition party.
Political observers noted that if the disgruntled TMC MLAs manage to secure the backing of 52 legislators, the count of other party lawmakers who are with Mamata Banerjee would drop below the 29-member threshold required for recognition as the principal opposition party.
The term 'Maharashtra model' entered India's political lexicon after the 2022 split in the Shiv Sena, when a faction led by Eknath Shinde broke away from the parent party and, with the support of the BJP, formed the government in the state.
The model is generally used to describe a political strategy in which a sizeable group of legislators defects from a regional party, secures the support of at least two-thirds of its elected members to avoid disqualification under the anti-defection law, and subsequently stakes claim to the party's organisational identity, including its name and election symbol. The breakaway faction then aligns with a larger national party to assume power.
The subsequent split in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in 2023 further reinforced the perception of the Maharashtra developments as a template for political realignments and regime change in states dominated by regional parties.
Kolkata | TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday shot off a fresh letter to West Bengal Assembly Speaker Rathindra Bose, reiterating the party’s decision to appoint Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as the Leader of Opposition (LoP).
The communication added a fresh twist to the ongoing alleged signature forgery case and an additional intrigue to speculations on the fallout of the visible cracks in the Trinamool legislative party from where two MLAs -- Ritrabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha -- were expelled on Monday.
Two TMC MLAs, Kunal Ghosh and Ashima Patra, attempted to deliver the letter by hand to the Speaker, but alleged that, in the absence of Bose in his office, his office secretary refused to accept it, stating he was under verbal instructions not to receive any letters from the TMC.
“Till yesterday, the Speaker was receiving our letters. For unknown reasons, the office has stopped accepting them from today. How can he not receive an official communication from two elected MLAs? Is this a joke? With this attitude, what kind of custodian of democracy can this Speaker become?” Ghosh said.
A top source in the party later said it had emailed the letter to the Speaker following the failure to hand over a hard copy.
The letter signed by Banerjee, which also endorsed Ashima Patra and Nayana Bandyopadhyay as deputy LoPs and Firhad Hakim as chief whip, requested the Speaker to recognise the posts “on the basis of the precedent or practice of Legislative Assembly, which is in vogue for decades together”.
Abhishek drew from the 2001 precedent of then Speaker Hashim Adul Halim’s acceptance of Pankaj Banerjee as LoP following the TMC's recommendation, a practice, he said, that was followed after the 2006, 2011, 2016 and 2021 state elections.
“In 2021, the BJP recommended the name of Shri Suvendu Adhikari, as Leader of Opposition, which was accepted by the then Hon’ble Speaker,” Banerjee wrote.
Banerjee also referred to the gesture, born out of convention, of CM Adhikari and Chattopadhyay as LoP designate holding the Speaker's hand and guiding him to his chair in the Assembly following his election on May 15.
“Effectively, you have already recognised Sri Chattopadhyay as the Leader of the Opposition on the Floor of the House,” Banerjee said, drawing the Speaker’s attention to his inviting Chattopadhyay to deliver the welcome speech as Leader of Opposition.
Senior BJP minister Tapas Roy questioned the legality of the letter on the grounds that it carried no supporting signatures from the elected TMC MLAs.
“There seems to be a war of letters within the TMC. First, there was a letter from Shobhandeb Chattopadhyay. Then there was a complaint letter from their MLA Ritabrata Banerjee on the same issue. Now there is this letter delivered by Kunal Ghosh,” Roy said.
The latest letter was sent in the wake of the CID probing the signature forgery case after two TMC MLAs -- Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha -- informed Speaker Rathindra Bose on May 27 that "no resolution was adopted about the selection of LoP" in the party's May 6 meeting, as claimed in the party's official communication to the Speaker, and that the duo had signed the meeting resolution book on a later date on May 19.
The two MLAs alleged that the so-called May 6 resolution was "manufactured and fabricated" and stated that as many as 14 of the 70 signatures were in "block letters".
The rebel MLAs were referring to a written communication sent by Abhishek Banerjee to the Speaker on May 20, where he enclosed a copy of the meeting resolution book along with the attendance sheet containing signatures of some 70 MLAs present at the May 6 meeting held at former chief minister Mamata Banerjee's Kalighat residence.
The TMC has subsequently expelled both Banerjee and Saha for indulging in “anti-party activities”.
The probe agency, which has issued two appearance summons to Banerjee, the latest one for June 8, has, so far, questioned 13 TMC MLAs in connection with the case.
Of the 13 TMC MLAs whose statements have been recorded by the CID so far, three legislators -- Baharul Islam of Canning Purba, Arup Roy of Madhya Howrah and Subhasis Das of Maheshtala -- have categorically said the signatures in the meeting resolution book are not theirs, the agency has claimed.
The latest letter from Abhishek Banerjee also came amid strong rumours that a section of TMC legislators could break away under the leadership of expelled MLA Ritabrata Banerjee.
Political circles in the state were abuzz with reports of meetings involving dissident MLAs at a Kolkata hotel and at the MLA Hostel during the last 24 hours, a contention that Banerjee vehemently denied on Tuesday.
“I am not aware of any such developments, and those who contend that I held a meeting at a South Kolkata hotel will have to prove that statement,” Ritabrata Banerjee told reporters outside Assembly premises.
Chattopadhyay, though, told PTI that the majority of the party MLAs would remain with TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee despite the intense speculation on defections, adding the TMC's old guard would continue to retain control of the organisation.