Kolkata, Sep 16 (PTI) West Bengal’s Leader of Opposition Ritabrata Banerjee on Wednesday questioned the legal basis of a Supreme Court plea seeking disqualification of 10 TMC MLAs of his faction, saying he would decide his next course of action after September 18.
The LoP, who is among the MLAs facing proceedings initiated by the Mamata Banerjee-led bloc, claimed there were discrepancies between the dates mentioned in the letter seeking their disqualification and the Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed in the Supreme Court.
“One should do a crash course, there are mistakes in the petition,” he said, taking a swipe at the rival camp led by Mamata Banerjee.
He said he would remain silent until September 18 and decide on his next move thereafter, without elaborating on what action he was considering.
“By what magic are all the cases being filed by the same family? Critics are saying there are no private cases after the 4th. Will the membership of 10 MLAs be cancelled, or is this the joy of slaughtering the innocent? I have time till the 18th. I will remain silent for two days. Let me see where the water flows in these two days. I want to know how much the lawyer has been paid as fees,” he said.
Deputy Leader of the Opposition Sandipan Saha also hit out at the Mamata Banerjee-led camp.
“We are the real TMC. Just wait for a few days, you will see those who are filing disqualification pleas themselves would lose their membership of the assembly,” he said.
The statements came a day after the assembly secretariat issued notices to Banerjee and nine other MLAs aligned with his faction, seeking their replies within a week to a disqualification petition filed by the Mamata Banerjee-led camp.
Besides Saha and Banerjee, the notices were issued to Arup Roy, Firhad Hakim, Akhruzzaman Ansari, Shiuli Saha, Sabina Yasmin, Biplab Mitra, Javed Khan and Rathin Ghosh.
The move followed a petition filed in the Supreme Court by senior TMC MLA Sovandeb Chattopadhyay seeking disqualification of the 10 legislators under the anti-defection law.
Chattopadhyay, the Mamata Banerjee-led faction’s nominee for the Leader of Opposition post, had earlier approached assembly speaker Rathin Bose seeking disqualification of the 10 MLAs, alleging that they had acted against the party’s interests.
The dispute over the appointment of the leader of opposition is already pending before the Calcutta High Court, where Chattopadhyay challenged the speaker’s decision to recognise Ritabrata Banerjee for the post.
The high court’s division bench had declined to interfere with the speaker’s decision and granted a two-month period in the matter, which is scheduled to end on October 18. The Mamata-led faction, however, approached the Supreme Court with an SLP.
TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee said the Supreme Court plea sought the disqualification of the legislators on grounds similar to those invoked earlier against rebel MPs.
The latest legal move has opened another front in the factional dispute within the TMC, with the rival camps contesting control of the organisation as well as the party name and election symbol.
The Ritabrata Banerjee-led faction has claimed the support of 65 of the TMC’s 80 MLAs and has undertaken a parallel organisational exercise, including electing Akhruzzaman Ansari as chief whip.
The dispute, which followed the TMC’s defeat in the assembly elections in May, has also reached the Election Commission, with both factions staking claim to the TMC’s name and twin-flower-on-grass symbol. PTI PNT SOM
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