The rebel Trinamool Congress legislators, recognised as the principal opposition party by the West Bengal speaker, constituted their new national working committee on Monday and elected Arup Roy as their chairperson, a post held by party founder Mamata Banerjee.The faction led by Leader of the Opposition Ritabrata Banerjee constituted a new national leadership hierarchy, directly challenging the authority of Mamata Banerjee (Screengrab)“The All India Trinamool Congress held a meeting and formed its national working committee today. Arup Roy has been declared the chairperson. Firhad Hakim, Aroop Biswas, Rathin Ghosh and Sabina Yasmin are vice-presidents,” Ritabrata Banerjee, who emerged as a leader of the rebels and was recognised by the speaker as leader of the opposition (LoP) in the assembly, said after the meeting was held at a hotel in New Town.He said he was elected general secretary alongside Biplab Mitra and Sandipan Saha. Incidentally, Abhishek Banerjee still holds the post of TMC national general secretary.The rebels did not keep any photo of Mamata or Abhishek Banerjee at the event where the meeting was held. Instead, larger-than-life portraits of Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Babasaheb Ambedkar and Kazi Nazrul Islam adorned the wall.“Abhishek Banerjee was not even discussed at the meeting,” Ritabrata said.He also gave no direct answer when asked whether the rebels replaced Mamata Banerjee with Arup Roy as chairperson, or if they claim to represent the party that Mamata Banerjee still leads.“We are the TMC. We also stated earlier that we will welcome her if she wants to be our main advisor,” said Ritabrata.Arup Roy added, “We have a big struggle ahead of us.”“We will inform the Election Commission about our meeting. The EC will take decisions on fund defalcation, signature forgery, etc. We have unanimously decided to appoint an auditor to look into financial irregularities. A party cannot run on whims and fancies. We follow rules,” Ritabrata said when asked about the police complaints lodged by some rebels that Mamata’s loyalists might misuse the party’s funds in a bank.“We will let you know when we form our state committee. Our district committees will be formed very soon, and our media panellists and spokespersons will start operating from tomorrow,” Ritabrata said.Asked if the party has a new office, he said, “We will invite you for a cup of tea very soon.”On June 3, the assembly speaker, Rathindra Nath Bose, recognised as many as 58 rebel TMC legislators as the principal opposition party in the House. Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha, whom the Mamata-led TMC expelled on June 1, became the leader and deputy leader of the opposition, respectively. The development took place 29 days after the Bharatiya Janata Party wrested 207 seats against the TMC’s 80.Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha were expelled on June 1, minutes after chief minister Suvendu Adhikari told reporters that they had filed a written complaint which led to the CID probe into the forgery of signatures of some TMC MLAs in a May 19 resolution that nominated Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as the leader of the opposition (LoP).The speaker sought a police probe into the alleged forgery. Abhishek Banerjee is a prime suspect in the case because, as the TMC national general secretary, he sent a copy of the resolution to the assembly speaker. He has been questioned by the CID twice.TMC MLA Kunal Ghosh, a Mamata Banerjee loyalist, refused to attach any importance to the rebels’ formation of a national working committee.“TMC and Mamata Banerjee are synonymous with each other. What these people are saying has no importance whatsoever. Nobody can hold such meetings or take such decisions. Mamata Banerjee is the leader of the party,” Ghosh said.Monday’s development comes days after 20 TMC Lok Sabha members declared in Delhi that they had joined the virtually unknown Nationalist People’s Party of India (NCPI) and would support the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Many of them alleged that TMC faced its crisis because of Abhishek Banerjee and not Mamata.