As many as 59 rebel Trinamool Congress (TMC) legislators arrived at the West Bengal assembly in Kolkata on Wednesday to stake claim as the main opposition party, leaving the other Mamata Banerjee-led faction in an unprecedented crisis.Expelled TMC lawmaker Ritabrata Banerjee is leading the dissidents. (X)The dissidents include former ministers such as Javed Ahmed Khan, Arup Roy, Chandranath Sinha, and Sabina Yasmin. Many of the 59 face probes by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate.“Let us hold our meeting. We have more than two-thirds of our [assembly] members with us,” said Sandipan Saha, the lawmaker from Kolkata’s Entally, before entering the assembly.The TMC on Monday expelled Saha and Ritabrata Banerjee, who is leading the dissidents, for anti-party activities. On Wednesday, Banerjee arrived first at the assembly armed with a signed letter from the dissidents.To escape action under the anti-defection law, 52 lawmakers were required to sign a letter to assembly speaker Rathindra Bose. The number of TMC lawmakers dropped to 78 after the two expulsions. At least 57 had consented to split the party by Tuesday afternoon. The number rose to 59 by Wednesday morning.The signs of a split were evident when only 69 of 80 TMC lawmakers attended the first legislature party meeting at Mamata Banerjee’s home on May 6. The number came down to 64 on May 19 and only 19 on May 31.Yasmin, who was once known to be close to Banerjee, said they are going to decide who will be the leader of the opposition as the rebels met at the assembly and said they would be meeting Bose.On Tuesday, Banerjee, who formed TMC in 1998 by breaking away from the Congress, held her first demonstration following the assembly poll debacle and accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of attempting to split her party by pressuring and luring her legislators. “You [the BJP] split the ruling party in Maharashtra. You are doing the same here,” Banerjee said during a two-hour demonstration, without naming the Shiv Sena, which suffered a split in 2022.Banerjee said police are telling TMC lawmakers to form a new party. “Police are going to the homes of lawmakers facing corruption charges and threatening them with federal agency investigations. Is this democracy?”Only nine TMC members of parliament and assembly attended the demonstration.