Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) remains stuck in what is seen as its biggest internal crisis yet, with resignations and dissent continuing to grow, a month after the party was forced out of power in West Bengal, which it has ruled for 15 years in a row. Rajya Sabha MP Prakash Shek Barak became the latest TMC leader to resign from his post in the upper house of Parliament on Thursday.
As the party faces a wave of resignations, TMC rebel MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar alleged that nearly 20 MPs from the party have written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to express their support for the BJP-led NDA.
Follow live updates related to the TMC crisis here.
The problems are not limited to the Lok Sabha. In the West Bengal Assembly too, Mamata Banerjee’s party seems to be moving towards a split. Last week, Speaker Rathendra Nath Bose recognized 58 rebel TMC MLAs led by Ritabrata Banerjee as the main opposition group in the House.
Here is the complete list of TMC members who are reportedly allied with the rebel camp in the Lok Sabha, along with the Rajya Sabha members who have resigned so far:
Lok Sabha MPs who are said to be part of the rebel camp
A total of 13 MPs have backed the rebel group as signs of party division continue to emerge, HT has learned. More names were revealed in the PTI report.
Here is the full list:
- Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar (Parasat)
- Yusuf Pathan (Baharampur)
- Sayuni Ghosh (Jadavpur)
- Dev (Deepak Adhikari) (Ghatal)
- Arup Chakraborty (Bankura)
- Babi Haldar (Mathurapur)
- Jagadish Basonia (Cooch Behar)
- Prasun Banerjee (Howrah)
- Sharmila Sarkar (Bardhaman Purba)
- Partha Bhowmik (Barrackpore)
- Asset Money (Bolpur)
- Mitali Bag (Arambagh)
- Satabdi Roy (Birbhum)
- Mala Roy (Kolkata Dakshin)
- Abu Tahir Khan (Murshidabad)
- Kalipada Surin (Jhargram)
- June Mallya (Medinipur)
- Khalilur Rahman (Jangipur)
- Rachna Banerjee (Hooghly)
Notably, the names of Asansol MP Shatrughan Sinha and Jaynagar MP Pratima Mondal had also emerged earlier among the signatories keen to join the rebel camp. However, both TMC MPs have rejected the allegations.
Sinha told news agency PTI that he would not leave Mamata in the “difficult time” because she “stood by me in the difficult time”. Meanwhile, Mondal challenged members of the “rebel faction” to produce any document bearing her signature.
List of TMC Rajya Sabha MPs who resigned
- Sukhendu Sekhar Rai
- Sushmita Dev
- Prakash Shik Barak
Will TMC merge with Congress?
Growing divisions within the TMC have sparked speculation about a possible merger with the Congress, especially after Mamata Banerjee met Congress parliamentary chief Sonia Gandhi in Delhi on Monday.
However, people familiar with the matter told HT on Wednesday that no merger proposal was being considered between the two parties and termed the allegations as baseless.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh also said in a post on
Rebel TMC leader Ritabrata Banerjee on Wednesday strongly ruled out any possibility of a merger between the splinter group and the Congress, saying the developments currently unfolding are entirely an internal matter of the organisation.
