Leaked documents showing MLAs attending meeting at Mamata's residence add new twist to battle for control of TMC

The All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) is in the midst of its biggest political crisis, as the Mamata Banerjee-led party faces an internal rebellion and a split over control of the outfit that ruled West Bengal until a few weeks ago. Following the election defeat to the BJP, which ended the TMC’s 15-year rule in West Bengal, Mamata has struggled to hold the flock together, and a large faction of the party’s legislators has broken away from the leadership.

Rebels gain upper hand

Former chief minister Mamata who founded TMC in 1998 was dealt a major blow after rebel MLA Ritabrata Banerjee was recognised as the new Leader of the Opposition (LoP) and not her nominee, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay. Ritabrata Banerjee has claimed the support of 58 out of 80 Trinamool MLAs.

Leaked documents show MLAs supporting Mamata

As the tussle continues, a new set of ‘leaked’ documents has surfaced online. The documents purportedly relating to two meetings of party MLAs at Mamata Banerjee's Kalighat residence on May 6 and May 19 showed more than 60 legislators attending the two gatherings and expressing their support for the decisions taken by the ‘official’ camp.

According to PTI, 67 MLAs attended the May 6 meeting at 30B Harish Chatterjee Street, where signatures of legislators were seen alongside the names of their constituencies and the date.

While most legislators signed in Bengali or English, some names were written in block letters.

Among those whose names appeared in block letters were MLAs Subhasis Das, Chandranath Sinha, Dinen Roy and Baharul Islam, the documents showed.

The papers described the May 6 gathering as a meeting convened for the election of the leader of the opposition, deputy leader and chief whip of the TMC legislature party.

The records stated that former Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim presided over the meeting and that the proposal for electing the legislature party leader was unanimously approved by those present.

The documents further claimed that legislators who could not attend had also conveyed their support.

Another set of records relating to the May 19 meeting carried signatures of 59 TMC legislators.

What Ritabrata Banerjee said

MLAs Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandeepan Saha had earlier complained to the assembly authorities, alleging forgery, following which the state government entrusted the investigation to the CID.

Reacting to the documents, Banerjee said the matter was under investigation and refrained from making detailed comments.

"Handwriting experts can examine the documents. The tower locations of legislators present on those dates can also be verified. The ongoing investigation into the signature forgery allegations will now have more material to examine," he said.

The rebel leader also questioned whether the documents were attendance sheets or nomination papers relating to the election of the leader of the opposition.

"If these were indeed the nomination documents, is this what was submitted before the Speaker? The colour of the first two pages and the third page does not match. Moreover, the third page carries no signatures," Banerjee claimed.

A rebel TMC MLA, requesting anonymity, told PTI that two separate signatures had been taken from legislators during the May 19 meeting.

"One was for attendance. Besides that, signatures had earlier been taken during the May 6 meeting in connection with the election of the leader of the opposition," the MLA claimed.