The Trinamool Congress’ Lok Sabha unit stumbled on the brink of split on Monday after at least 14 lawmakers met in Delhi and discussed secession in the presence of Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, the latest setback for the regional party after its humiliating loss in the Assembly elections last month.
About three kilometers from where party chief Mamata Banerjee was attending a meeting of the All India National Development Alliance (IND), the rebel TMC parliamentarians met at the residence of Union minister and BJP observer for Bengal elections Bhupinder Yadav for two hours. In the evening, the group met again at the residence of Birbhum MP Shatabdi Roy, who has held office for four times.
These developments came hours after veteran TMC leader Sukhendu Sekhar Rai resigned from the Rajya Sabha, citing “unbridled corruption” and “chaotic governance” of the party. The TMC delegation in the Bengal Parliament has already suffered a split after 58 MPs last week supported rebel leader Ritabrata Banerjee, who bet on the position of opposition leader.
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Adhikari was present at both the meetings of the rebel TMC MPs, officials familiar with the developments said. “In the first meeting, the Prime Minister sarcastically said that you are all senior MPs but you were treated badly by the TMC officers,” said an MP.
Prasat MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said the rebel group had decided to support the National Democratic Alliance.
“Nearly 20 TMC members, including me, have decided to support the NDA for Bengal’s development. We have decided to write to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and formally support the NDA,” the MP, who resigned from all party posts last week, said.
“The message has already reached the Speaker of Parliament. We have sought separate seating arrangements as a separate bloc,” she added later in the evening.
The rebels need at least 19 of the TMC’s 28 members to escape anti-defection measures.
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A viral photo showed the first meeting of rebel MP from Coochbehar Jagadish Basonia, MP from Bankura Arup Chakraborty, MP from Howrah Prasoon Banerjee, MP from Jhargram Kalipada Sareen, MP from Bolpur Asit Mal, MP from Murshidabad Abu Tahir Khan, and Sharmila Sarkar, MP from Burdhaman Purba. Rebel leaders said Dastidar and Roy were also present.
Other MPs who attended this meeting were Khalilur Rehman (Janjipur), Deepak Adhikari (Ghatal), Bappi Haldar (Mathurapur) and Partha Bhowmik (Barrackpore). John Malliah, MP from Medinipur, joined the second meeting, people familiar with the matter said.
At least eight TMC MPs did not attend the Delhi meetings. The list included floor leader and Diamond Harbor MP Abhishek Banerjee, Srirampur MP Kalyan Banerjee, Krishnanagar MP Mahua Moitra, Dum Dum MP Saujata Rai, Bardhaman-Durgapur MP Kirti Azad, Asansol MP Shatrughan Sinha, Jadavpur MP Sayoni Ghosh and Uttar Kolkata legislator Sudeep Bandopadhyay.
Two more party MPs, Yusuf Pathan and Rachana Banerjee, arrived in Delhi in the afternoon. It was not immediately known which side the four other representatives were on.
Moitra claimed that Pathan was one of the rebels. “And @iamyusufpathan, you’re rushing to Delhi because @AmitShah called you? Have some courage. You played for India. Our region voted for you by a huge margin. Feel some shame and some courage,” she posted on X.
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Azad claimed that only 12 to 13 MPs attended the meeting of the rebel lawmakers.
“The fake and fabricated narrative of BJP’s dirty tricks department gives figures of 20 MPs.. There were 13 MPs, 12 from Lok Sabha and 1 from Raj Sabha who attended the meeting at Bhupinder Yadav’s house. No one else signed on the dotted line except these,” he said on X.
TMC senior MP Sujata Rai told HT, “I think it will be very difficult for them to get a two-thirds majority. I have been contacted but I have refused to change my stand.”
Actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha told HT that he will not change his stand and will continue to support Mamata Banerjee. Another party lawmaker, Pratima Mondal, denied having any contact with the rebels. “I am in Kolkata with Mamata’s TMC,” she said.
Former Lok Sabha general secretary PDT Achary said Clause 2/3 applies only if MPs merge with another party. “The law is very clear and the Supreme Court has also said that for merger only, the 2/3 majority requirement applies. There is no way the Speaker can recognize them as a separate group in the Lok Sabha,” he said.
Ghosh Dastidar blamed the TMC. “Things were going from bad to worse, and I have been with Mamata Banerjee for 40 years. She has been my mentor, guide and leader, and I was with her even in the days when she was not in power. I had contested five elections and lost before 2009. So it is useless for me to say that she left just because she is not in power in West Bengal,” she said.
She added: “Now the rule of the people has proven what I am trying to tell you. That is why we want to work for the development of the state and for the national interest and the safety and security of the nation. That is why we want to work separately.”
This is the second major setback for Mamata Banerjee in two weeks. On June 3, 58 TMC legislators defied the party line in the Bengal Assembly and supported expelled legislator Ritabrata Banerjee as leader of the opposition. On Monday, former Kolkata mayor and prominent minority figure Firhad Hakim appeared to have joined the rebel group.
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If the TMC’s parliamentary party splits, it will help the BJP strengthen its numbers in the Lok Sabha as the Opposition managed to muster enough strength earlier this year to block the Constitution Amendment Bill that would have implemented reservation for women and capping seats.
This has led to a decline in support for the TMC since it lost power in West Bengal after 15 years in the legislative elections that took place this summer, where the Bharatiya Janata Party won 207 seats and the TMC won 80 seats.
In his resignation letter, Sukhendu Sekhar Rai blamed the party leadership. “The people have given a huge mandate to the BJP for the first time in the history of the state to put an end to the 15-year-long chaotic rule of the Trinamool Congress which arose out of widespread unbridled corruption and abject failure in the field of health, education, industry, law and order, employment etc.”
“Respecting this historic judgment of the people, I have resigned from the Rajya Sabha as a member and also from the primary membership of the All India Trinamool Congress,” he added.
