The 20 lawmakers who quit the Trinamool Congress to join the National Citizens of India Party – and who have indicated their support for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance – will, in terms of their new party hierarchy, mirror that of their previous party.
“Discussions are continuing. There is no change. The previous arrangement will continue,” said Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, a representative of the rebel MPs. According to two people familiar with the matter, Dastidar will be the NCPI president, a position she held for some time in TMC before being replaced by Kalyan Banerjee.
Veteran MP Sudeep Bandopadhyay, who was the TMC leader in the House before being succeeded by fellow lawmaker Abhishek Banerjee in August last year, will be the new leader of the National Party of India, and Shatabdi Roy will be nominated as deputy leader, the two people, who requested anonymity, added.
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The merger of TMC dissidents with the Indonesian National Assembly, and their decision to support the NDA, strengthened the latter, rising from 294 to 314 in the Lok Sabha – still 46 seats to secure its magic two-thirds majority in the lower house.
In the Senate, the distribution of power could reach 155 seats, just 8 seats short of a two-thirds majority, after the next round of biennial elections and by-elections.
Opposition representatives continued to criticize the defection of representatives.
RJD leader Manoj Kumar Jha said, “Have you even heard the name of this party before yesterday? Has anyone in the country heard – other than the people who created it? This is a dismal state for our democracy. If these tactics become the norm, what becomes of democracy? … A ‘non-entity’ party, which got just 800 votes in two Assembly elections, suddenly got 20 MPs overnight… Indian democracy has turned into such a farcical state that the world’s perception of us has changed radically.”
On Sunday, the rebels met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, minutes after Mamata Banerjee loyalists MPs Kirti Azad and Sagarika Ghose met the Speaker and delivered a message from TMC’s Lok Sabha floor leader Abhishek Banerjee. “Division is no longer available under the Tenth Schedule” and the TMC is “one indivisible political party,” the letter said.
Analysts said the merger with the National Council of Resistance will ensure that dissidents are not attracted to the provisions of the anti-defection law as detailed in the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.
By keeping them out, the BJP may have addressed the concerns of some local workers in West Bengal who were against the legislators joining the BJP.
In the state assembly, at least 59 TMC legislators elected their leader of the opposition, which is in conflict with the selection of Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee. It remains to be seen whether they will also exit the party, or claim to be the real TMC.
