At the meeting, Banerjee was accompanied by senior TMC leaders Kalyan Banerjee, Derek O’Brien, Mahua Moitra, and Sougata Roy. They sought to invalidate the rebels MPs’ claims of a merger with the Nationalist Citizens’ Party of India.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Friday took an indirect jibe at the ongoing “Operation Tiger” buzz within the Shiv Sena (UBT), stressing that current events are merely the “trailer” and that the “full picture” is yet to come.

The arrest came amid the government’s ban on Telegram over the NEET-UG retest. The accused, identified as Akash Chaudhary, was operating a Telegram channel by allegedly using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to conceal his identity.