Kolkata | For the first time since the TMC was founded by Mamata Banerjee in 1998, a rebel faction on Monday replaced her as the party chairperson and elected senior MLA Arup Roy to the post, while unveiling a parallel leadership structure.

At a special session here, the faction led by Leader of the Opposition Ritabrata Banerjee constituted a new national leadership hierarchy, directly challenging the authority of Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee, the party's national general secretary.

The rebellion within the TMC crossed a political Rubicon as dissident leaders moved beyond challenging the leadership and sought to remake the organisation itself, projecting their camp as the legitimate continuation of the party.

Held at a hotel here, the 31-minute special session brought together rebel MLAs, former councillors and party functionaries from across the state.

The political messaging was unmistakable.

While the TMC's twin-flower symbol remained prominently displayed, portraits of Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam and B R Ambedkar adorned the stage. Notably absent were photographs of Mamata Banerjee, who has long been the principal face of the party.

Addressing the gathering, Ritabrata Banerjee claimed the party was facing a "constitutional crisis", arguing that Article 20 of the TMC constitution required the formation of a national working committee every three years.

According to the rebel camp, the last national working committee was constituted on February 12, 2022, and its tenure expired on February 11 this year. Since no fresh committee was formed thereafter, the faction argued it became necessary to reconstitute the party's organisational structure.

The meeting first approved 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 Banerjee, before expanding it into a 30-member body.

Arup Roy, the veteran MLA from Howrah Central, was then elected chairperson by voice vote.

"The special session of TMC leaders and members unanimously elected Arup Roy as party chairperson," Banerjee told reporters after the meeting.

Former minister Biswas and MLAs Hakim, Ghosh and Yasmin were appointed vice-chairpersons. Ritabrata Banerjee, Khan and Saha were named general secretaries, while Akhruzzaman Ansari was appointed treasurer.

Seeking to bolster the legitimacy of the exercise, Banerjee asserted that the proceedings had been conducted in accordance with the party constitution and would be communicated to the Election Commission.

"It is not about what is real or not real. We are TMC and will inform the Election Commission about today's special session proceedings," he said.

"We have functioned and convened this special session as per the norms. It is for the Election Commission to decide what is wrong or right," he said.

The LoP said the newly constituted leadership would soon move to establish organisational units at various levels.

"We will soon constitute the district committees, the state unit and a panel of spokespersons," he said.

Banerjee, however, struck a conciliatory note towards Mamata Banerjee.

"If Mamata Banerjee wants to be chief advisor, she is most welcome," he said.

Significantly, while speculation surfaced after the meeting that Abhishek Banerjee had been suspended, leaders of the rebel camp neither proposed nor adopted any such resolution.

Instead, by constituting a fresh national working committee and appointing new general secretaries, the faction effectively displaced Abhishek Banerjee from the post of national general secretary under the previous organisational structure.

Similarly, the election of Arup Roy as chairperson amounted to a rejection of the authority exercised by Mamata Banerjee as the party's founder-chairperson, though neither leader was mentioned by name during the proceedings.

Sources in the rebel camp claimed around 60 of the TMC's 80 MLAs attended or endorsed the session. They also said nearly 70 former councillors of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and representatives from several districts participated in the meeting.

Police had also recently frozen debit operations in three party bank accounts holding around Rs 440 crore, following complaints by rebel MLAs seeking a probe into the source of the funds and objections raised by former treasurer Biswas.

The organisational exercise comes amid an unprecedented crisis within the opposition party following its defeat in the assembly elections, which ended its 15-year rule in West Bengal.

The first major blow to the party leadership came when 58 of the party's 80 MLAs backed expelled Ritabrata Banerjee's claim to the post of LoP, rejecting the party high command's choice of veteran MLA Sovandeb Chattopadhyay. The rebel camp now claims support from around 65 legislators.

At the parliamentary level, 20 of the party's 28 Lok Sabha MPs recently broke away, merged with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) and extended support to the BJP-led NDA. The party also witnessed resignations from the Rajya Sabha, including that of veteran leader Sukhendu Sekhar Roy.

The Mamata Banerjee camp, however, dismissed the exercise outright.

Senior leader Kunal Ghosh said the dissidents had no authority under the party constitution to convene such a session or alter the organisational structure.

"TMC and Mamata Banerjee are synonymous. They have no power to do this," he asserted.

Leaders close to the Mamata Banerjee camp also indicated that the developments could trigger a legal battle over the party's organisational legitimacy.

Meanwhile, a Mamata Banerjee loyalist said that Firhad Hakim, Aroop Biswas, Arup Roy, Javed Khan, Rathin Ghosh, Biplab Mitra, Snehasis Chakraborty, Sabina Yasmin, among others, will be show-caused by the party’s disciplinary committee for indulging in anti-party activities.