Ritabrata Banerjee to remain Bengal LoP, Calcutta HC refuses to stay appointment

Rebel Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Ritabrata Banerjee will stay on as the West Bengal Leader of Opposition as the Calcutta High Court has refused to stay his appointment to the post.

Justice Krishna Rao informed that the next hearing in the matter is slated to be held on July 28. Both sides have been directed to submit their respective affidavits in the case.

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The cracks within the TMC surfaced just after the West Bengal assembly elections. Though Sovandeb Chattopadhyay was selected by the party for the post, Banerjee claimed the support of 58 MLAs and sought his appointment to the LoP’s position. The TMC had already expelled Banerjee for carrying out anti-party activities.

The TMC has claimed that its chairperson Mamata Banerjee had informed the Speaker to appoint Chattopadhyay to the LoP’s post, but the Speaker went ahead with Ritabrata Banerjee’s appointment. Chattopadhyay has challenged this decision given by the Speaker at the Calcutta High Court.

When Justice asked why Banerjee was appointed the LoP despite being expelled from his party and why the first letter seeking to appoint Chattopadhyay to the post was not considered, Rathindra Bose’s legal team responded that no such law exists that mandates how the LoP should be appointed. The decision taken was based on assembly precedents and the support received by majority MLAs. Bose mentioned that 58 TMC MLAs directly approached him to appoint Banerjee as the LoP.

Banerjee’s legal team also pointed out that the appointment of the LoP is based on majority support. They argued that since no anti-defection case applies for the rebel MLAs, their support should be considered legal.

On the other han, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay’s lawyer Kalyan Bandyopadhyay maintained that the authority to decide the LoP rests with the political party and not the legislative party. Hence the decision by the party should be taken as the final word and no other person should be appointed to the post.

The High Court has not given any interim direction in the case. Following this, Sandipan Saha, who is one of the rebel TMC MLAs supporting Banerjee said, “This is our moral victory. We have done everything legally.”