Kolkata: The Election Commission of India has asked Trinamool Congress founder Mamata Banerjee and party MLA Ritabrata Banerjee to submit replies and supporting documents on contesting claims that they are the ‘real’ TMCÂ by 5.30 pm on July 6.The ‘split’ in the TMC took place shortly after the party lost power to the Bharatiya Janata Party in the April assembly polls this year.Ritabrata Banerjee, a former Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP, turned TMC MP who was newly elected as MLA from the party, lay claim to the legislative identity of the All India Trinamool Congress early in June.On June 3, Ritabrata presented a letter to Bengal assembly Speaker Rathindra Bose, proposing himself as the Leader of Opposition, defying an earlier official communication by the party selecting Mamata loyalist Shovandeb Chattopadhyay for the role. The letter bore the signatures of 59 TMC MLAs, more than the two-thirds needed for a legislative identity.Mamata and Ritabrata had both submitted a list of the members of their faction of the TMC’s “national executive committees” to the Election Commission.While Mamata has noted that she is the chairperson of the party, Ritabrata’s faction has nominated Arup Roy in the post. As The Wire has noted in a report, Roy’s nomination in the polls this time reportedly took place at Mamata’s insistence. Ritabrata’s list, notably, does not have either Mamata or her nephew and the party’s second-in-command, MP Abhishek Banerjee.As the two sides lay claim to the party’s election symbol and funds, TMC’s bank account has been frozen.A day ago, on July 2, Ritabrata met the full bench of the Election Commission along with nine MLAs and a former minister.The Bengali Anandabazar Patrika quoted him as saying after emerging from the meeting, “There is no question of any dispute. Two-thirds of the party’s MLAs are with us. Former ministers are with us. Councillors are with us, as are members of the zilla parishads.”Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s missive to the two factions went out after the meeting with Ritabrata. The Commission will take a final decision, although it is not clear when.The Ritabrata faction is understood to have the support of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Bengal and the Union.