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KOLKATA: Calcutta high court declined to stay Thursday the appointment of rebel Trinamool MLA Ritabrata Banerjee as leader of the opposition in the Bengal assembly, handing his camp an early courtroom edge on opening day of the first session under BJP govt.Hearing a petition by Trinamool Congress MLA Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, Justice Krishna Rao refused interim relief and pointed out that a resolution submitted to the speaker by TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee nominating Sobhandeb as LoP remained “in dispute”. The court also flagged an Alipore court order of June 15 that stayed Ritabrata’s expulsion from TMC until June 30. The high court fixed July 28 for the next hearing.Ritabrata, Sandipan Saha (who is now deputy LoP), and several other rebel MLAs backing BJP-led NDA have alleged their signatures were forged on a May 6 letter sent to the assembly speaker proposing Sobhandeb’s name as LoP – a case making headlines as “signgate” and being investigated by Bengal police CID.Sandipan called HC’s refusal to intervene a “moral victory”. “Ritabrata and I had initiated this fight. We brought the alleged signature irregularities in TMC’s letter to the speaker’s notice. The issue then went to court. Today’s victory in HC confirms that law is on our side,” he said.HC’s refusal to hit pause has left Ritabrata firmly in the saddle for now, but courtroom battles and political trench warfare inside TMC show few signs of easing. “Of 80 Trinamool MLAs, 65 are with us. Of the remaining 15, one is in jail. For the time being, 14 are on the other side. Let us wait and watch,” Ritabrata said.The ruling failed to cool tempers inside the assembly. Five Mamata Banerjee loyalists – Sobhandeb, Kunal Ghosh, Madan Mitra, Abdul Rahim Boxi and Asoke Deb – met CM Suvendu Adhikari and demanded separate seating arrangements, making clear they would not share benches with rebel MLAs.“We will not sit with them. We also told CM Adhikari that we will not seek time allotments to speak from Ritabrata. He agreed and asked us to coordinate with parliamentary affairs minister Shankar Ghosh,” Kunal said.He said Sobhandeb appeared to receive symbolic backing during the governor’s address. “CM was not only courteous to Sobhandeb, but we did notice that during the governor’s address, the seat to the left of the speaker, traditionally reserved for LoP, was kept for Sobhandeb today,” he said.
