Amid ‘cold feet’ buzz, only 32 TMC rebels turn up for meeting; 16 demand Mamata Banerjee be named ‘chairperson’, not ‘chief adviser’

KOLKATA: TMC’s post-split turmoil played out Thursday along divergent tracks, with several Lok Sabha MPs receiving feelers to dump the Mamata Banerjee -Abhishek Banerjee duo amid signs that some among the 58 MLAs of the breakaway group may have developed cold feet.

Only 32 of the rebel MLAs who picked expelled colleague Ritabrata Banerjee as leader of opposition attended a meeting in assembly, reinforcing speculation that all’s not well within the group.

Sources said 16 of them indicated they may walk away unless ex-CM Mamata was declared party “chairperson” instead of “chief adviser”, as announced by Ritabrata. “We want her to remain the chairperson. Our political careers have grown under her shadow,” Panchla MLA Gulshan Mullick said.



Rumblings within the rebel bloc didn’t ease Mamata’s troubles though. Speaker Rathindra Basu ruled the expulsion of Ritabrata and Entally MLA Sandipan Saha, named deputy leader of opposition, by TMC brass invalid. “Per party’s constitution, a show-cause notice must be served and time given to respond.

Expulsions can not happen abruptly in a day. They (rebels) have required number of legislators, so I accepted their letter,” he said.

Ritabrata and Saha were expelled for “anti-party activities” after they alleged their signatures and that of several other MLAs had been forged in the letter recommending veteran Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as LoP.

TMC is planning to move Calcutta high court against the speaker recognising Ritabrata as LoP, arguing that an expelled MLA couldn’t hold that post.