The Trinamool Congress on Wednesday dissolved all party committees along with those of the frontal organisations, with immediate effect.

"After careful consideration, it has been decided that all committees of the All India Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, as well as all its frontal organisations, shall stand dissolved with immediate effect," the party announced on its official X (formerly Twitter) handle on Wednesday afternoon.

The decision came within an hour after at least 58 MLAs elected on Trinamool tickets went against the official line and chose first-time MLA Ritabrata Banerjee as leader of Opposition in the Bengal Assembly.

The TMC on Monday had expelled Banerjee and fellow debut MLA Sandipan Saha for anti-party activities.

Banerjee headed the Trinamool's trade union wing till his expulsion.

Just about a month after Trinamool was voted out of power and managed to win 80 seats in Bengal, the party that ruled the state for 15 years has been unravelling at breakneck speed.

A number of the party leaders have stayed away from key internal meetings, while many of its elected public representatives in zilla parishads, municipal corporations and municipalities have either resigned en masse or have been arrested in pending criminal cases.

The Trinamool said it will introspect and build the organisation afresh.

"The party will undertake a comprehensive exercise of introspection, performance review and organisational assessment at every level," the post stated. "Based on the findings of this exercise, the organisational structure of the parent body and all frontal organizations will be reconstituted and announced in due course."

"The party remains committed to strengthening its organisation and preparing it to meet future challenges with renewed vigour," read the post.

Trinamool chairperson Mamata Banerjee and national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee will travel to Delhi next week to attend a meeting of the opposition INDIA bloc to discuss the strategy for the monsoon session of Parliament and also possibilities of a nation-wide movement against the BJP government.

TMC rejects new leader of Opposition

A section of senior TMC leaders, claiming that they derive their authority from party chief Mamata Banerjee, rejected the move made by the rebel party MLAs who met Bengal Assembly Speaker Rathindra Bose on Wednesday and submitted letters of support from 58 legislators endorsing expelled party leader Ritabrata Banerjee as leader of Opposition.

"Under rules, who submitted this letter on behalf of the AITC, the party? The MLAs have no authority to do so. Abhishek Banerjee’s letter is the only valid letter submitted to the Assembly Speaker. This act is legally untenable," a senior party leader told PTI.

"Both Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha, who have mobilised the dissident MLAs, were expelled by the All India Trinamool Congress two days ago and the letters of their expulsion are in the public domain," he added.

The dissident TMC legislators also endorsed three MLAs, expelled legislator Sandipan Saha, Siuli Saha and Javed Khan, as deputy leaders of opposition and Raghunathganj MLA Akhruzzaman, as their chief whip.

The move by the rebel TMC MLAs was made less than 24 hours after TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee shot off a fresh letter to Bose, reiterating the party's decision to appoint Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as the LoP.

The letter, which also endorsed Ashima Patra and Nayana Bandyopadhyay as deputy LoPs and Firhad Hakim as chief whip, requested the Speaker to recognise the posts "based on the precedent or practice of legislative assembly, which is in vogue for decades together".

Two TMC MLAs, Kunal Ghosh and Ashima Patra, attempted to deliver the letter by hand to the Speaker on Tuesday, but alleged that, in the absence of Bose in his office, his office secretary refused to accept it, stating he was under verbal instructions not to receive any letters from the TMC.

Ghosh later said he left Banerjee's letter at the table of the Speaker's office and subsequently e-mailed it to Bose while also sending it via registered post.

"If these rebel MLAs had such problems with the names officially decided by the party, why did they not raise it at the meeting where the decision was taken in the presence of Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee," Ghosh asked.

Wednesday’s development came amid a CID probe into an alleged signature forgery case after Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha informed the Speaker on May 27 that no resolution regarding the selection of the LoP had been adopted at the party’s May 6 meeting, contrary to the claim made in the party’s official communication.