Mamata Banerjee is reeling with another rebellion, this time in the Parliament, as 20 of Trinamool Congress's 28 MPs decided to ditch the leadership and support the BJP-led NDA at the Centre just days after the MLAs rebellion in the West Bengal assembly.
On Monday, when Banerjee, the party chief, and national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee attended the INDIA bloc meeting in New Delhi, Lok Sabha MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, a leading figure in the TMC's rebel camp, said a group of MPs had decided to formally support the NDA.
Ghosh Dastidar claimed that around 20 party MPs have written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to communicate their decision.
"Nearly twenty TMC MPs, including me, have decided to write to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and formally support the NDA," she said.
What's next for TMC and Mamata Banerjee
For now, the rebel MPs are seeking a meeting with the Speaker to argue that Kakoli Ghosh will remain the chief whip of TMC in the Lok Sabha.
On the contrary, the other faction claims the leadership had already removed Ghosh from the post and appointed Kalyan Banerjee as her replacement, with the same being communicated to the Lok Sabha Secretariat in an official letter dated May 20, long before the rebellion.
A copy of the letter shared by party sources carried a receipt stamp from the Speaker’s Office dated May 29, indicating that it had been formally submitted.
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.
The claim was backed by party MP Kirti Azad, who said the appointment of Banerjee as the party’s chief whip had already been communicated to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla last month.
This letter could prove to be a key point of contention on who the authorised chief whip is should the Speaker meet the dissident TMC MPs.
Speaking to ANI, Kakoli Ghosh said they have sought a meeting with Om Birla on the matter. She added that the faction will not join the BJP but will support the NDA for the development of West Bengal.
The Anti-Defection Law equation
According to sources, the rebel MPs have decided against immediately resigning from the Trinamool Congress or joining the BJP. Instead, they plan to operate as a separate group extending support to the NDA, a move seen as an effort to avoid disqualification under the anti-defection law.
The numbers make the development politically significant.
The TMC currently has 28 members in the Lok Sabha, with one seat lying vacant following the death of Basirhat MP Haji Nurul Islam.
If 20 MPs formally back the NDA, the group would comfortably exceed the two-thirds threshold required to prevent action under the anti-defection law.
TMC's Bengal rebellion
The latest development comes just days after the TMC leadership faced a major setback in the West Bengal Assembly, where 58 of its 80 MLAs reportedly defied the party high command’s decision to appoint veteran leader Sovandeb Chattopadhyay as Leader of the Opposition and instead elected expelled MLA Ritabrata Banerjee to the post.
The turmoil that has engulfed the party since its electoral defeat appears to have prompted a more conciliatory stance from TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee. At the INDIA bloc meeting in New Delhi, she adopted a cooperative approach as opposition parties sought to formulate a broader national strategy against the BJP.
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