Trinamool Congress MLA Madan Mitra, long considered a key loyalist of party chief Mamata Banerjee, on Wednesday resigned from her faction and joined the rebel group led by Leader of Opposition Ritabrata Banerjee.

This came a day after Mitra’s wife and two sons were issued summons by the Enforcement Directorate in a municipal recruitment scam case.

Mitra said that his family will cooperate with the central agency in its probe and claimed that his decision was not related to the summons, the Hindustan Times reported.

He had been appointed as one of the general secretaries of the Mamata Banerjee-led faction earlier this month.

Mitra told ANI on Wednesday that he was quitting because he was “no longer able to work effectively” in it.

“More and more of Mamata Banerjee’s long-time associates are leaving the party because, in my view, the leadership is focused on promoting Abhishek Banerjee rather than strengthening the organisation,” Mitra told the news agency. “TMC is not one person’s party...”

Abhishek Banerjee is the Trinamool Congress’ national general secretary, the party’s leader in the Lok Sabha and Mamata Banerjee’s nephew.

Mitra said that he had raised the concerns with Mamata Banerjee on several occasions, but they had not been addressed.

“In my view, Abhishek Banerjee wants decisions to be made solely on his terms and does not allow others to play a meaningful role,” the MLA told ANI. “As a result, I believe the party’s position is weakening...”

Mitra represented the Kamarhati constituency between 2011 and 2016 and again since 2021. He was a minister in the Mamata Banerjee government between 2011 and 2015.

The TMC has been beset by internal divisions and rebellions after it lost the Assembly elections to the Bharatiya Janata Party in May. Nearly 60 out of the TMC’s 80 MLAs have 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.

In June, TMC leader Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said that 20 of TMC’s Lok Sabha MPs will merge with the Tripura-based Nationalist Citizens’ Party and back the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. Abhishek Banerjee has urged Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to disqualify the 20 rebel MPs on the grounds of leaving the party.

On July 9, three TMC Rajya Sabha MPs who had resigned from the House joined the BJP.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.