TMC Crisis Deepens: 58 Rebel MLAs Back Ritabrata Banerjee as West Bengal Assembly LoP, Challenge Party Leadership

A group of at least 58 rebel Trinamool Congress MLAs chose Ritabrata Banerjee the West Bengal Assembly's Leader of the Opposition on Wednesday in an escalation of the internal crisis within the party.

The rebels approached the Assembly Speaker to press their demand, directly challenging the party leadership's decision to appoint Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as the LoP.

The rebellion got triggered after alleged forged signatures on a letter supporting Chattopadhyay's appointment and subsequent expulsion of Banerjee and fellow MLA Sandipan Saha for alleged anti-party activities.

Banerjee and Saha have claimed that their signatures were forged in the letter of TMC supporting Chattopadhyay as the LoP.

The rebel leaders argue that with support of more than two-thirds of the TMC's elected MLAs entitle them to choose their own leader, fuelling speculation of a possible split in the party, similar to the Shiv Sena split in Maharashtra.

TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee has slammed the rebels, insisting that the party is better off without then while backing Chattopadhyay its official choice for LoP.