TMC's Ritabrata Banerjee to remain Leader of Opposition in Bengal Assembly for now: Calcutta HC

On Tuesday, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court refrained from halting Bengal Assembly Speaker Rathindra Nath Bose's decision to acknowledge Ritabrata Banerjee, a rebel TMC legislator, as the Leader of the Opposition in the assembly. The court instructed a single-judge bench to handle the case within two months. This decision has left the Kalighat Trinamool faction, led by Banerjee, in a precarious position, as Ritabrata highlighted.

Senior BJP legislator Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, seeking relief after the division bench did not issue an interim order, will now decide the matter. The BJP has a stronghold in Bengal with 207 of the 294 seats, as seen in the recent elections, where the TMC held 80 seats. On June 3, the speaker recognized 58 rebel TMC legislators, naming Banerjee and Sandipan Saha as the leader and deputy leader of the Opposition.

Banerjee and Saha were expelled from the TMC on June 1 following a CID probe into the forgery of signatures in a resolution nominating Chattopadhyay as the Leader of the Opposition. The case centers on whether the speaker has the authority to select the Leader of the Opposition without consulting the party's leadership.