A new controversy has erupted amid the ongoing authorship imbroglio in the faction-ridden Trinamool Congress, with the Mamata Banerjee faction of the party writing to the Bengal Director General of Police, Siddhinath Gupta, accusing a section of the State police of unlawfully helping the breakaway group of the party in manufacturing “dummy affidavits” in the name of the party grassroots supporters so as to establish its ownership of the party and take control of the party symbol.
The Mamata Trinamool Congress has also alleged that stamp papers of lesser denomination had been suddenly diverted out of the ‘market’ apparently to stop the supporters of the Mamata Banerjee faction to make their own affidavits. The Election Commission of India has announced October 30 as the final day of hearing when the faction led by former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the one chaired by Opposition Leader Ritabrata Banerjee would argue their cases before the election panel, before the final ownership of the party is awarded to any of the groups.
A complaint written by Mamata TMC MP Dola Sen alleges that police stations across the State were being used to collect more than six lakh purportedly fake affidavits to help the breakaway group of the party now christened Democratic Trinamool Congress, which presently enjoys the support of 60 out of 80 party MLAs who won the 2026 Assembly elections. Sources in the TMC said that both the faction have been asked by the ECI to submit affidavits from their supporters by October 26, based on which and some other factors entitlement to the party’s name and election symbol would be determined.
“Accordingly, the OCs (Officers in-charge) and ICs (Inspectors in-charge) of police stations are using force and influence to get signatures on affidavits in favour of the traitor group led by Ritabrata Banerjee and Arup Roy in a completely illegal manner,” Sen has alleged in her letter to the DGP Gupta and Ajay Nand, the Commissioner of Kolkata Police. “The highest Constitutional offices of the double engine governments are orchestrating this conspiracy through police personnel to secure these affidavits forcibly,” she alleged.
“The officers in the districts have been asked to help manufacture at least 1,100 ‘dummy affidavits’ per police station so that they can amass 600000 affidavits before October 26. The police are literally coercing the lesser party members to write false affidavits in the favour of the Gaddar (traitors — read the rival faction), besides an artificial shortage of stamp papers of lower denomination have been created so that our supporters cannot find them easily with the stamp vendors … impeding the supporters of Mamata Banerjee to furnish such number of affidavits as required,” Mamata TMC MLA Kunal Ghosh said, adding the stamp vendors had been asked to supply at least 25,000 stamps of the denomination of Rs 10 besides making available Rs 20 stamps if required.
This had created a shortage of stamp papers not only for the ordinary public but also the Mamata Banerjee faction he said. “The breakaway faction is politically and financial aided by the BJP not only to weaken Mamata Banerjee, who is one of the tallest mass leaders of the country but also give birth to a phony opposition and a pocket opposition leader.
… they are trying to use a Maharashtra plan in Bengal only in a different manner but they will not be successful,” he said.