Kolkata, June 1 (IANS) The Trinamool Congress on Monday expelled two MLAs, Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha, for anti-party activities. According to the party, the decision has been communicated to them via email and WhatsApp, as well as to West Bengal Assembly Speaker Rathindra Basu.

The development came minutes after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, addressing a press conference from the state secretariat Nabanna, announced that it was Trinamool MLAs Ritabrata and Sandipan who had submitted a written complaint to the Speaker regarding the Assembly signature forgery case.

Based on that, the Assembly Secretariat filed a complaint with Hare Street Police Station. Suvendu Adhikari said that as the Police Minister, he ordered the state’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to be involved in the investigation only after the matter came to his attention. Within 15 minutes of the end of Suvendu’s press conference, the Trinamool Congress decided to expel Uluberia Purba MLA Ritabrata and Entally MLA Sandipan.

However, the Trinamool officially said that the two MLAs were expelled for not attending meetings convened by party leadership, indulging in anti-party activities, and making statements against the party.

After the expulsion, Sandipan said the party supports those who do immoral things and expels those who act morally. He added that they did not know signing an attendance sheet would be treated as signing a resolution.

According to the rules, the two MLAs will remain ‘non-party’ following their expulsion from the Trinamool Congress. They will not be obliged to follow the party’s whip or instructions in the Rajya Sabha elections or in any other case. Trinamool will not be able to apply for cancellation of their membership in any separate incident.

This experience is not new for Ritabrata. In 2014, the CPI(M) made him a Rajya Sabha MP, and he served until 2020. But in 2017, the CPI(M) expelled him on various charges. Since then, he remained an independent MP in the Rajya Sabha for three years. After the RG Kar rape and murder incident, when Jawhar Sircar resigned from the Rajya Sabha mid-term, Ritabrata went to the upper house of Parliament for one and a half years on a Trinamool ticket. Later, Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee brought him into state politics and gave him a party ticket to contest the Assembly polls this year, which he won.

Immediately after the expulsion of Ritabrata and Sandipan, Beliaghata MLA and party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh made a long post on Facebook without naming the two MLAs. He wrote that it had not even been a month since the results were announced, yet there was rebellion and betrayal in the party.

He questioned why they contested the election if they had so many allegations against the party.

He added that if Mamata Banerjee were the Chief Minister today, many would have lobbied to become ministers, but now they were distancing themselves by citing various reasons.

He termed this cowardice and said he would openly discuss the party’s working methods in meetings and, if necessary, publicly.

The former ruling party faced complications under Assembly rules regarding who would be the Leader of the Opposition, Deputy Leader, and Chief Whip. After the election results were declared on May 4, Mamata Banerjee called a meeting of winning MLAs at her Kalighat house on May 6. On that day, MLAs agreed to the proposal that Mamata would decide who would be the party’s leader, deputy leader, and chief whip in the Assembly.

Subsequently, Trinamool Congress announced Sovandeb Chattopadhyay as Leader of the Opposition, Nayna Bandyopadhyay and Asima Patra as deputy leaders, and Firhad Hakim as Chief Whip. A letter signed by Trinamool Congress General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee was sent to the Assembly, but it was not accepted.

The reason was that the election of the leader of the Parliamentary party or other office bearers had to be done in a meeting of the Parliamentary party, which was not followed. After leaving the May 6 meeting, several MLAs told the media that Mamata had been given the responsibility to decide the leadership.

When the Assembly Speaker rejected Abhishek’s letter, MLAs were made to sign the decision of the Parliamentary party at another meeting on May 19 in Kalighat. Several MLAs said they were made to sign the minutes of the May 6 meeting, which led to complications.

After taking over the probe, the CID visited the homes of four MLAs to investigate the signature scandal. Among them were Nayna Bandyopadhyay, Kunal Ghosh, Tapas Maity, and Baharul Islam.

A controversy arose over Baharul’s signature. Although it was signed in the May 19 meeting, the letter submitted to the Assembly was dated May 6. Baharul was not present at Mamata’s house that day. He said investigators wanted to know his whereabouts on May 6, and he told them he was at home in Bhangar due to post-poll violence.

He claimed he was shown a signature from that day, but clarified it was not his.

Baharul said he had also brought the matter to the party’s attention. On the other hand, senior leader and Ballygunge MLA Sovandeb said he did not understand the matter and that no one was forced to sign.

He added that Baharul had said after seeing the signature that it was not his.

The CID summoned Abhishek Banerjee on Monday in connection with the signature case, but he did not appear, citing health conditions.

–IANS

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