TMC Rebel Faction Gets Recognition as Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly

West Bengal Assembly Speaker on Wednesday accepted the TMC rebel faction's bid to make expelled party leader Ritabrata Banerjee the Leader of Opposition, in a major setback to party supremo and former chief minister Mamata Banerjee. Addressing the media after the announcement, Ritabrata Banerjee said two more TMC MLAs are expected to join his faction, raising the total number of legislators supporting him to 60. "We are representing Trinamool Congress in the Assembly. We are a block of 60 MLAs. We would request Mamata Banerjee to be our advisor and guide us. We will play the role of a constructive opposition," Banerjee said. He also said that Javed Khan, Sandeepan Saha, Sabina Yasmin and Shiuli Saha have been named as the deputy leaders of the TMC legislative party. As many as 58 TMC MLAs had earlier on Wednesday submitted a letter to Assembly Speaker Rathindranath Bose proposing Bandyopadhyay as the Leader of the Opposition, strengthening the faction's bid to be recognised as the party's "real" legislative wing. Earlier, Abhishek Banerjee, the party's national general secretary, had written to the Speaker proposing Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, the party MLA from Ballygunge in Kolkata, as the LoP. However, the proposal was not accepted by the Speaker, following allegations of forged signatures of several TMC MLAs.