NEW DELHI: Formal approval for the merger of the 20-member Trinamool Congress rebel group with the National Citizens Party of India (NCPI) may be delayed as Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has decided that he will meet the TMC leadership before taking the decision.
The Lok Sabha Secretariat on Monday wrote to Abhishek Banerjee, the TMC leader in the Lok Sabha, about a meeting that followed the latter’s appeal to the Speaker asking him not to recognize any faction of the TMC. The letter suggested a meeting at 4 pm on Monday, but Banerjee was, at that time, being interrogated by the Enforcement Directorate. The spokesman is likely to meet Banerjee later this week.
“Parliament Speaker Om Birla will take a call on the issue of merging 20 TMC MPs with NCPI only after hearing both sides. The Speaker’s Office has also sent an email to the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC,” a senior official familiar with the details said.
On Sunday, 19 Trinamool MPs met Birla and handed over a letter to merge with NCPI. Another rebel TMC MP, Rachana Banerjee, who was in Malaysia at the time, met the Speaker of Parliament on Tuesday.
The meeting with the TMC leadership is part of due process, but is unlikely to change anything.
A senior opposition leader who requested anonymity said: “This is part of the standard protocol before a decision to secede or merge is taken. It is very unlikely that the merger will be rejected due to the TMC’s objections.”
TMC MP Saugata Roy welcomed the meeting, saying, “It is a good thing. It is the speaker’s duty to be impartial.”
“There are many contradictions among those who left. Some of them wanted to create another group, others wanted to join the BJP, but they joined the Indian National Party. We can already see different opinions within the same group.”
By merging with the National Council of Resistance, the rebel group will attempt to escape the restrictions of the anti-defection law. To be sure, they have already indicated that they will support the BJP-led NDA. This should work to the advantage of the latter, who will work to increase his power in the House, as well as avoid antagonizing his workers in West Bengal.
TMC leaders said that party MP Kirti Azad also received a call from the TMC president’s office informing him of the invitation. Lok Sabha officials sent an email to Abhishek Banerjee on June 15 at 2 pm while he was being interrogated by the Enforcement Directorate, asking him to come and meet the Speaker by 4 pm, according to a message issued by the TMC.
In one of the biggest defections in Parliament, at least 20 Lok Sabha MPs from Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress have proposed joining a little-known political entity, the Indian National Party, to strengthen the BJP-led NDA.
This merger will increase the NDA’s strength from 294 to 314 in the Lok Sabha – which is still 46 seats short of ensuring a magic two-thirds majority in the lower house. In the Senate, the distribution of power could reach 155 seats, only eight seats short of a two-thirds majority.
The TMC is also facing problems in the state assembly, where 58 TMC members have chosen a different opposition leader than the one chosen by Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee. The TMC has challenged the order in the Calcutta High Court. After its defeat at the hands of the BJP in the state elections, the TMC has witnessed fissures and defections, and faces the possibility of a vertical split.
