Kolkata, June 3 (IANS) Ritabrata Banerjee, the expelled Trinamool Congress legislator from Uluberia (Purba) constituency in Howrah district, arrived at the West Bengal Assembly on Wednesday with letters of support from 59 party MLAs, claiming that their faction is the principal opposition party in the state and not the minority group still owing allegiance to former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee.

While Ritabrata entered the Assembly premises at around 10.30 a.m., the party legislators, who had signed the new resolution, started joining him one after another.

These legislators said that another expelled Trinamool Congress MLA from Entally in North Kolkata, Sandipan Saha, is likely to arrive at the Assembly premises any time.

“After Sandipan arrives, there will be a brief meeting and after that whatever is necessary will be done and then the media will be informed,” said one of the women legislators.

On Tuesday, without directly saying anything, Ritabrata had hinted at such a possibility after arriving at the Assembly premises, as he launched a scathing attack against Abhishek Banerjee, over the latter seeking Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) after he was assaulted in Sonarpur on May 30.

“What kind of a mass leader is he? After the party’s landslide defeat on May 24, he kept himself home-bound for 26 days. Now he is seeking Central forces' security cover for himself. He had earlier claimed that the public is there to protect him. So why is he now seeking security cover?” Ritabrata said on Tuesday.

He also accused Abhishek Banerjee of running Trinamool Congress in a corporate management style, depending entirely on the Indian Police Action Committee (I-PAC).

Both Ritabrata and Sandipan were suspended from the Trinamool Congress on Monday. The suspension announcement was made within minutes after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari informed the media that a probe by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of West Bengal Police has been launched into the case of a mismatch in signatures of Trinamool Congress legislators in a crucial Assembly-related document after these two expelled MLAs informed the office of the Speaker, Rathindra Bose.

--IANS

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