New Delhi: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) seems to be heading for a split with over a dozen Lok Sabha MPs planning to write to Speaker Om Birla that they want to align with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), a senior TMC leader told ThePrint.
The rebel group, led by Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, do not want to be led by party general secretary and Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek in the Lower House of Parliament.
The TMC has 28 MPs in Lok Sabha. While PTI reported that at least 20 of them have written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, two senior TMC MPs told ThePrint that of the 28 MPs, 16 of them have rebelled while 12 are still with the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool faction.
In the letter that Dastidar has prepared, she said that nearly 20 TMC MPs, along with her, have decided to write to the Lok Sabha Speaker and “formally convey desire to be part of the NDA”.
“This decision comes after extensive discussions among fellow MPs. As of now, I remain the Chief Whip of the TMC in the Lok Sabha, and in that capacity I have consulted colleagues before arriving at this decision,” Dastidar had said in her letter, which ThePrint has seen.
Dastidar was removed as the TMC chief whip in the Lok Sabha on 20 May and replaced by Kalyan Banerjee.
She had called her removal “arbitrary and unilateral.” “The party chairperson may have announced my replacement from the post, but that does not alter the constitutional and parliamentary position overnight. We have accepted the people’s verdict and believe that our future political course should be aligned with the NDA. Accordingly, we will be communicating our decision to the Speaker. We want to be part of the NDA,” she has said in her letter.
The unravelling of TMC’s parliamentary party comes on a day when party president and former CM Mamata Banerjee was in Delhi with her nephew Abhishek to attend the INDIA bloc meeting and senior leader Sukhendu Sekhar Ray resigned from his Rajya Sabha seat and the party’s primary membership.
A senior TMC MP, who is part of the rebel group, told thePrint that over a dozen of the rebel MPs had met BJP leader and Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav at his residence Monday morning. West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari also met Yadav, but the rebel TMC MPs had left by then.
The TMC has been hit by rebellion since its electoral rout in West Bengal. About two dozen of the party’s 80 MLAs have rebelled and backed Ritabrata Banerjee as Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly. Party chief Mamata Banerjee had nominated veteran MLA Sovandeb Chattopadhyay as the Leader of the Opposition.
The Trinamool faction, which is not part of the rebel group, was quick to react to the rebel group’s action.
“Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar is claiming that she is the chief whip and because of that she has written to the honourable Speaker Lok Sabha claiming to be the chief whip. Her removal and appointment of Kalyan Banerjee as the chief whip was already informed to the honourable Speaker last month by our honourable chairperson Mamta Banerjee,” TMC Lok Sabha MP Kirti Azad posted on X.
“The question is for how long the BJP will keep hoodwinking the people?”
This is an updated version of the report.
(Edited by Tony Rai)