Mamata Banerjee Slams Rebel TMC MLAs Amid BJP Defection Speculation

Trinamool Congress supremo criticised the rebel MLAs of her party for seeking to side with the Bharatiya Janata Party while staging a sit-in protest in Kolkata on Tuesday to protest alleged attacks on party leaders.

Reports suggest over 50 MLAs led by suspended Ritabrata Banerjee are looking to break away and stake claim to the party's two blooming flowers symbol.

"My regret is those who received my support in their lives now aligning with traitor," the former chief minister lamented while addressing the people at the rally in central part of the city, for which Kolkata Police had initially denied permission.

She also claimed that accused the BJP of "rigging counting in 177 of 294 assembly seats to win Bengal elections" while claiming that "TMC leaders are being threatened in Bengal by cops".

TMC had endorsed Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as the Leader of Opposition in Bengal assembly, leading to Ritabrata and another TMC MLA claiming that their signatures were forged in official communication from the party.

Commenting on it, Mamata said these allegations are part of BJP's "dirty game" and forensic tests of signatures should be done if the Assembly Speaker is unsure about authenticity.

"We were not given permission to set up a stage or use microphones," Banerjee said, while addressing the crowd using a megaphone.

Banerjee was seen accompanied by the party's old guards Firhad Hakim, Madan Mitra, Derek O'Brien, Kalyan Banerjee and Dola Sen, amid the conspicuous absence of most of the fresh faces who won the assembly seats on TMC tickets.

The party supremo, however, asserted that the dharna, to protest Saturday's attack on her nephew and TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, alleged post-poll violence and hawker eviction, will continue till the evening as scheduled.