Kochi: The All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) rebel faction led by Ritabrata Banerjee has taken control of the party’s office in Kolkata’s Metropolitan area.
Ritabrata said the faction would formally begin functioning from the office from Saturday. The group entered the premises, changed the locks on the gates, put up new posters and held a meeting inside and declared that they would operate from the building as the party’s headquarters from Saturday, NDTV reported.
The rebels also put up a poster on the front gate identifying senior leader Arup Roy, MLA, as chairman of the All India Trinamool Congress.Fifty-eight of the party’s 80 MLAs had earlier backed Ritabrata Banerjee’s claim to the post of Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly. Ritabrata Banerjee and supporters met the full bench of the Election Commission in NewDelhi the other day to stake claims over the party’s name, symbol, organisational structure and assets.
The Election Commission has asked both groups to submit documents and counter-claims on organisational elections, authorised signatories and control of the party by 5:30 pm on July 6.Twenty of the Trinamool’s 28 Lok Sabha MPs have broken away, merged with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) and aligned with the BJP-led NDA.
