Rebel West Bengal MLAs led by Ritabrata Banerjee on Monday “removed” Mamata Banerjee as the chairperson of the Trinamool Congress, The Indian Express reported.

The rebel MLAs named party leader Arup Roy as the chief of what they described as the “real TMC”.

“We have held a special session today [Monday] and delegates have elected the national working committee,” The Indian Express quoted Ritabrata Banerjee as saying.

The Uluberia Purba MLA said that Roy had been with the party “from the beginning”.

Twenty-nine other members have been elected to the committee, Ritabrata Banerjee added.

Ritabrata Banerjee said that the legislators want Mamata Banerjee to be their chief adviser.

He contended that the TMC’s Constitution required that a national working committee be formed every three years, and that the last panel was set up in February 2022, The Telegraph reported.

The MLAs will inform the Election Commission about their decision, The Indian Express quoted Ritabrata Banerjee as saying.

He said that the name of Abhishek Banerjee, the national general secretary of the TMC, was not discussed in the meeting.

“We are the Trinamool Congress,” he was quoted as saying. “We will shortly set up a state committee, district committees, spokesperson and frontal organisations.”

However, former West Bengal minister Madan Mitra, a supporter of Mamata Banerjee, said that the rebel MLAs did not have the power to change the party structure.

“There is a party Constitution and Mamata Banerjee is the chairperson of the party,” The Indian Express quoted Mitra as saying. “This [new party structure] simply cannot be done. They [rebel group] cannot do this.”

The TMC has been beset by internal divisions and rebellions after it lost the Assembly elections to the Bharatiya Janata Party in May. On June 3, nearly 60 out of the TMC’s 80 MLAs rebelled against the party leadership to choose Ritabrata Banerjee as the leader of the Opposition in the House.

The group has been recognised by the Assembly speaker as the party’s legislature party in the House, and Ritabrata Banerjee has been recognised as the leader of the Opposition.

On Thursday, the Calcutta High Court declined to grant interim relief in a petition challenging the speaker’s decision to recognise Ritabrata Banerjee as the leader of the Opposition. The petition was filed by TMC leader Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, who had been nominated by the group supporting Mamata Banerjee as the leader of the Opposition.

On June 14, TMC leader Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said that 20 of the party’s Lok Sabha MPs will merge with the Tripura-based Nationalist Citizens’ Party and back the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.

On Friday, Abhishek Banerjee submitted petitions to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla demanding that the 20 rebel MPs be disqualified on the grounds of leaving the party.

Earlier this month, three of the TMC’s Rajya Sabha MPs resigned, and two of them quit the party.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.