10 Rebel TMC MLAs in New Delhi to meet EC for party control, symbol, funds
Kolkata: In a bid to further isolate Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and her loyalists within the organisation, a group of 10 rebel MLAs of their party flew to New Delhi on Wednesday evening to meet the Election Commission (EC) on Thursday to lay claim to the party’s leadership, symbol and treasury.
Ritabrata Banerjee, the face of the opposition TMC camp and also the leader of the West Bengal opposition, is heading the delegation, including her deputy Sandipan Saha. Interestingly, the rebel group requested an appointment from the EC on Tuesday and received it within a day.
Before leaving, Mr. Banerjee said: “We have an appointment with the EC full delegation. We have been allowed to take a 10-member delegation from our collective leadership to the meeting at 12 pm on Thursday. We had informed the EC in detail about everything after our special session held on June 22.”
“We asked for the appointment, which was given later. We thank the EC for this.” Mr. Saha echoed him and said, “We will discuss the letter we sent to the EC before.” The letter relates to the formation of the new national working committee by rebel TMC leaders after Ms Banerjee was removed from the post of party president and her MP nephew Abhishek Banerjee was suspended from the post of national general secretary.
According to sources, the opposition group will urge the EC in the meeting to recognize their side as the ‘real’ TMC and make them the party symbol and custodians of bank accounts. Besides Mr. Banerjee and Mr. Saha, the delegation also includes Arup Roy, Javed Ahmed Khan. Recently, some rebel TMC leaders met poll officials at the Chief Electoral Officer’s office in West Bengal.
However, Beleghata TMC MLA Kunal Ghosh, who is loyal to Ms. Banerjee, claimed: “We are not blaming all those who switch sides because a perception is created that someone who switches allegiance will not be troubled by the police. So those who switch sides either have links to corruption or fear of being accused in fake cases. The pressure is already working on them.”
