Trinamool Congress MLAs Attend Rival CM's Meeting Amidst Internal Crisis

NEW DELHI: In another sign of the growing divide within the Trinamool Congress, several party MLAs attended Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari's administrative review meeting on Wednesday, even as the opposition party grappled with its biggest internal crisis since losing power in West Bengal. Among those present at the Nabanna meeting were rebel leaders Ritabrata Banerjee, Javed Khan and Sandipan Saha. Their attendance came hours after Banerjee and other dissident legislators met Assembly Speaker Rathindra Bose and submitted letters purportedly signed by 58 MLAs backing his appointment as the new leader of the TMC legislature party. The rebel camp also proposed a new leadership structure, naming Banerjee as legislature party leader, Javed Khan, Sandipan Saha and Shiuli Saha as deputy leaders, and Raghunathganj MLA Akhruzzaman as chief whip. Earlier in the day, the dissident legislators had gathered at the Assembly for a separate meeting, underscoring the deepening fault lines within the party following its electoral defeat. Also present at the Nabanna meeting were several senior TMC leaders regarded as longtime loyalists of Mamata Banerjee, including Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, Nayana Bandyopadhyay, Ashok Deb and Kunal Ghosh. Notably, these leaders stayed away from the rebels' Assembly gathering and instead chose to attend the chief minister's review meeting, highlighting the increasingly fluid political equations within the party. Wednesday's developments came days after senior TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and six party MLAs attended an administrative review meeting convened by Adhikari in Kalyani, fuelling speculation over changing alignments within the opposition camp. Political observers say the participation of TMC legislators in government programmes has increasingly blurred the line between administrative engagement and political messaging in the state's rapidly evolving post-election landscape. The issue has also exposed differences within the party over whether its leaders should attend government-led programmes. Speaking after the Kalyani meeting last week, Kunal Ghosh said the matter was under discussion within the party. "We are not in favour of boycotting administrative meetings called by the state government. But when our party workers are being assaulted and rendered homeless in post-poll violence, we need to think twice before attending such meetings. Our party is also discussing whether we should continue participating in these meetings or not," he had said. The widening divide was evident in another way as well. None of the MLAs who attended the dissidents' Assembly meeting had been seen at Mamata Banerjee's dharna in central Kolkata on Tuesday, reflecting the growing distance between the rebel bloc and the party's traditional leadership. The BJP government has defended such meetings as inclusive administrative exercises. Soon after assuming office, Adhikari announced that opposition MPs and MLAs would be invited to government programmes and district-level review meetings. During the previous TMC government, BJP leaders had frequently alleged that opposition representatives were excluded from similar official meetings.