When the West Bengal assembly election results were announced on May 4, it turned out the TMC, which ruled the state for 15 years, was restricted to just 80 seats in the House of 294. But with recent implosion within the party, it seems that the election results were just the beginning of series of troubles for the Mamata Banerjee-led party.
This week, 58 party MLAs rebelled openly, staking claim to become the principal Opposition party in Bengal, vertically splitting the party. And when the leadership of the crisis-hit party called a meeting at chairperson Mamata's residence on Friday, only eight of the non-rebelling MLAs were present.
The attendees also included six MPs: Dola Sen, Mala Roy, Kalyan Banerjee, Abhishek Banerjee, Derek O'Brien and Sudip Bandyopadhyay. Notably, the TMC has 28 MPs in the Lok Sabha and 13 in the Rajya Sabha.
The rebellion is being led by now-expelled party legislator Ritabrata Banerjee, who announced on Wednesday after a meeting with the speaker that he had been appointed leader of the Opposition, plunging the party into an existential crisis.
This effectively marks the party's first split in 30 years of its existence since Mamata founded it upon breaking with the Congress.
