The meeting was called to discuss the CID probe into an alleged forgery of some of their signatures in a letter nominating West Bengal's LoP.

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Sunday postponed its legislative party meeting at chairperson Mamata Banerjee’s Kolkata residence as only 19 of the 80 MLAs turned up to discuss the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) probe into an alleged forgery of some of their signatures in a letter nominating Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as the assembly’s leader of the opposition (LoP), party leaders said.

At least 30 of the 80 TMC MLAs need to sign a letter nominating the LoP.

Kunal Ghosh, the party’s state general secretary and MLA from Kolkata’s Beliaghata claimed that most MLAs could not make it as they were protesting on the streets against the heckling of the party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Saturday afternoon.

“Many of the MLAs called the leadership yesterday after the incident saying they would be holding agitations and hence the meeting should be postponed. Some called today as well. We held some discussions with those who managed to come. The next meeting will be announced soon,” Ghosh said.

“We have decided that agitations in protest against Saturday’s attack on Abhishek Banerjee and Sunday’s attack on MP Kalyan Banerjee will be held at sub-divisions and community blocks across Bengal tomorrow. On June 2, Mamata Banerjee will hold a one-day agitation at Rani Rashmoni Road,” Ghosh added.

The mass absence of the MLAs-- coming weeks after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ousted the TMC, winning 207 of Bengal’s 294 seats-- raised questions within the ranks because Abhishek Banerjee is scheduled to visit the CID office on Monday to face questioning in the forgery case.

He was summoned on Saturday hours before he was manhandled, allegedly by some TMC workers, at Sonarpur in South 24 Parganas district.

“The absence of so many MLAs raises questions. If Abdur Rahim Boxi, an MLA from Malda district, and Rukbanur Rahman from Nadia could come to Kalighat then it remains unexplained why Javed Ahmed Khan or Sandipan Saha, both from Kolkata, were conspicuous by their absence,” an MLA told HT, requesting anonymity.

A second agenda of the meeting was to discuss the presence of so many TMC MLAs at recent administrative meetings called by the new BJP government,” the MLA added.

Although Ghosh alleged that many TMC MLAs and party workers were detained or harassed on Saturday night and Sunday for holding protests, police said only a former MLA and nine others were arrested at Chinsurah in Hooghly district.

“Former Chinsurah MLA Asit Majumdar and nine of his associates were arrested on Sunday. They blocked a road and stopped police from performing their duty on Saturday evening,” a district police officer said, requesting anonymity.

Taking a swipe at the TMC, Bengal BJP’s chief spokesperson Debjit Sarkar said, “What surprises people is the low attendance of TMC MLAs and MPs on social media as well. Very few have condemned the heckling for which police arrested TMC workers.”

On Friday, the CID questioned several TMC legislators to probe the allegation that some of their signatures were forged on the May 19 letter nominating Chattopadhyay as LoP.

The complaint was lodged at Kolkata’s Hare Street police station on behalf of the assembly secretariat on Wednesday and the matter was handed over to the CID, officials said.

“The TMC submitted its first letter to the assembly regarding the LoP issue on May 6 but the assembly rejected it because it was not sent by the TMC legislative party, which is mandatory. When a second letter signed by TMC MLAs was submitted on May 19 it was found that some of the signatures did not match the assembly records,” a police officer said, requesting anonymity.

All 80 TMC MLAs were asked to assemble at Mamata Banerjee’s residence on May 19 but the party did not say how many were absent.

Of the several TMC MLAs the CID questioned till Friday afternoon, only one, Baharul Islam from South 24 Parganas district’s Canning East seat, said he did not sign the letter.

“I could not attend the meeting as I was home. If I didn’t sign the letter then who did? I have informed the leadership about this,” Islam said on Friday.

TMC announced on May 10 that 82-year-old Chattopadhyay, a 10-time MLA who won Kolkata’s Ballygunge seat in the April polls, would be the LoP.

Kolkata’s Chowringhee MLA Nayna Bandopadhyay, wife of TMC Lok Sabha member Sudip Bandopadhyay, and Hooghly district’s Dhaniakhali MLA Asima Patra were nominated as deputy leaders of the opposition in the House. Kolkata mayor and Kolkata Port MLA Firhad Hakim was nominated as the TMC chief whip.