Kolkata, June 18 (IANS) A single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court on Thursday upheld the decision of the West Bengal Assembly Speaker, Rathindra Bose, accepting expelled Trinamool Congress Legislator Ritabrata Banerjee as the leader of the new majority bloc of the party in the House and as the official Leader of Opposition (LoP).

The hearing on a petition challenging the decision of the Speaker filed earlier this month concluded on Wednesday. However, the single-judge bench of Justice Krishna Rao had reserved the decision.

Finally, on Thursday morning, the judgment was pronounced, with Justice Rao refusing to give any interim direction on the Speaker’s decision to accept Ritabrata Banerjee as the LoP.

This means that while Ritabrata will continue as the LoP, the claim of the minority bloc in Trinamool Congress’ legislative party proposing veteran party legislator Sovandeb Chattopadhyay as the LoP gets nullified.

Currently, there are 80 Trinamool Congress legislators in the 294-seat West Bengal Assembly. Out of the 80, a total of 60 legislators are officially in the rebel but majority bloc, which Ritabrata claimed to be 64 earlier this week.

On the other hand, the original bloc, who continue their allegiance to Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee, has the support of just 20 legislators.

However, despite refusing to pass an interim order on the Speaker’s decision on Thursday, Justice Rao said the matter will be heard again on July 28. Justice Rao directed both the petitioner and the defendant in the matter to file affidavits in the matter by the next date of hearing.

Meanwhile, a Criminal Investigation Department (CID) probe is already underway over alleged mismatches in the signatures of certain Trinamool legislators in the resolution submitted to the Speaker’s office nominating Sovandeb Chattopadhyay as the Leader of Opposition (LoP), Asima Patra and Nayna Bandopadhyay as deputy leaders of the Opposition, and Firhad Hakim as the Chief Whip of the Trinamool legislative party in the Assembly.

The alleged mismatches were flagged by Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha, prompting the CID to initiate a probe.

Trinamool immediately suspended Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha. Soon afterwards, 60 legislators, led by Ritabrata Banerjee, revolted and submitted a fresh resolution, claiming to be the majority bloc in the Trinamool legislative party.

The Speaker accepted the fresh resolution, and Ritabrata Banerjee was officially recognised as the Leader of Opposition.

Subsequently, the petition was filed at Justice Rao’s bench challenging the Speaker’s decision.

–IANS

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