Turkish opposition leader Ozgur Ozel and 91 breakaway lawmakers yesterday applied to launch a new political party, seeking to regroup to challenge President Tayyip Erdogan after their former party faced an unprecedented legal crackdown.

They applied to the interior ministry to launch the so-called “New Party” in protest over a May court ruling that had annulled the Republican People’s Party (CHP) 2023 congress and stripped Ozel of his title as CHP chairman.

New Party would emerge as the second-largest behind Erdogan’s ruling conservative AK Party, which has 277 of 600 in parliament, but reduced from the secular CHP’s previous total of 135 MPs.

Forty-four MPs remain at CHP including some Ozel backers and others supporting Kemal Kilicdaroglu, a divisive figure and former party chairman whom the court re-appointed to lead it.

Though New Party is expected to pose a new-look challenge for Erdogan, the broader splintering of opposition could boost the president’s prospects of extending his 23-year reign.