Trinamool Congress veteran Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, the leader of the Opposition-designate for the 18th Assembly, found himself reduced to a petitioner, as the Assembly secretariat allegedly chose bureaucracy over what he claimed was convention, locking him out of the office earmarked for the post.

Five days after the Ballygunge MLA, a member of the House since 1991, submitted a letter from his party recognising him as the leader of the Opposition — signed by Trinamool national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee — to claim the position, he found himself stranded in a corridor of uncertainty because the secretariat demanded a letter signed by the 80-member legislature party, including signatures from Trinamool MLAs.

"Who is he (Abhishek) to issue this letter? He is an MP and the so-called national general secretary, holding no formally recognised role in the Trinamool legislature party. Why should his signature suffice in this case?" asked a member of the Treasury benches. "Such nonsense must stop now."

Taking umbrage, the former parliamentary affairs minister filed a Right to Information (RTI) application, demanding to know the exact rules the secretariat followed in 2011, 2016, and 2021 to choose the leader of the Opposition.

"No such correspondence is usually exchanged in the appointment of the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly. The secretariat of the Assembly informs the person concerned that he has been appointed as the leader of the Opposition. In this case, that did not happen. Even the office for the Opposition is locked," said the octogenarian, spearheading the Trinamool pushback against the delay.

On May 13, Trinamool emissaries delivered a letter to Assembly secretary Samarendra Nath Das. The letter, signed by former chief minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew, declared Chattopadhyay the leader of the 80-member Trinamool legislature party, thereby staking a claim for the post of leader of the Opposition. It additionally designated Firhad Hakim as Opposition Chief Whip, besides Nayna Bandyopadhyay and Asima Patra as deputy leaders of the Opposition.

On May 15, after Rathindra Bose was elected unanimously as the Speaker, Chattopadhyay — assuming he was the leader of the Opposition — accompanied chief minister Suvendu Adhikari to escort Bose to the chair.

But thereafter, in a letter Chattopadhyay claims is unconventional, the secretariat asked the legislature party for a letter with signatures from the Trinamool MLAs endorsing his selection.

"I felt compelled to file an RTI. There, I asked what rules the secretariat followed in the case of the leader of the Opposition for the Assembly in the past three terms," he said.

But sources have said until the Trinamool leadership yields to the physical mechanics of the secretariat's rule book, the gates of the office Chattopadhyay hopes to occupy will remain firmly shut.

Sources said the secretariat essentially questioned Chattopadhyay's appointment methodology, underscoring that the legislators must elect their leader in an internal meeting, rather than receiving a decree issued from the party. The sources said the secretariat basically demanded a formal record of that meeting's outcome.

The Ballygunge MLA insisted that he had gone through the rule book, and it should have been a routine procedural nod, as the largest party in Opposition needs merely 30 seats in the 294-seat House to claim the status.

"This is unfortunate. I have informed our leadership," said Chattopadhyay, the first-ever MLA of Trinamool (who left the Congress along with Mamata), elected in 1998.