Another issue seems to be adding to the already ongoing turmoil in the TMC, Delhi-based TMC office will be vacated soon. The office is located at 20-B Rajendra Prasad Road in thr national capital. The TMC office operates from the residence of rebel MP Partho Bhowmik. In this regards, Partho Bhowmik has asked Abhishek Banerjee to vacate the TMC office from his residence.
Turmoil in TMC escalates
After a split between its MLAs, the Trinamool Congress appeared headed for an implosion in Parliament, with a group of MPs claiming majority support deciding to ditch Mamata Banerjee and back the BJP-led NDA.
On a day when TMC chief Mamata Banerjee and party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee attended the INDIA bloc meeting in Delhi, Lok Sabha MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, who is at the forefront of the rebel faction, said they had decided to write to Speaker Om Birla declaring support for the NDA.
Kakoli Ghosh says 20 TMC MPs ready to write to the speaker
Ghosh Dastidar claimed that 20 MPs of the party have decided to write to the speaker. "Nearly twenty TMC MPs, including me, have decided to write to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and formally support the NDA," she told PTI. "We have accepted the people's verdict and believe that our future political course should be aligned with the NDA," Ghosh Dastidar said.
Sources said the dissident MPs intend to argue before the speaker that Ghosh Dastidar continues to be the chief whip of the party in the Lok Sabha.
A TMC leader, however, said the party had communicated its decision to remove her as chief whip and appoint Kalyan Banerjee to the Lok Sabha Secretariat through an official letter dated May 20, signed by TMC Parliamentary Party Chairperson Mamata Banerjee. A copy of the letter shared by party sources showed a stamp of receipt from the speaker's office dated May 29.
The leader's view was concurred with by party MP Kirti Azad, who said Banerjee's appointment as chief whip had been communicated to the speaker last month. "The question is for how long the BJP will keep hoodwinking the people?" he said.
Rebel MPs not to immediately resign from the TMC
According to sources, the rebel MPs have chosen not to immediately resign from the TMC or join the BJP, but to function as a separate bloc supporting the NDA -- a strategy designed as a shield against the anti-defection law.
The arithmetic is politically significant. The TMC currently has 28 Lok Sabha MPs, with one vacancy following the death of Basirhat MP Haji Nurul Islam. The support of 20 MPs would comfortably cross the two-thirds threshold needed to thwart the invocation of the anti-defection law.
The TMC leader, however, reiterated that even securing that number would not automatically enable the rebel faction to function as a separate parliamentary group. "As per the law, even if two-thirds of MPs wish to leave a party, the only choice they have is to merge with another political party. There is no provision for a separate group," the leader said.
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