Veteran Trinamool Congress leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay on Saturday joined the TMC rebel group and reached the residence of Union Minister Bhupender Yadav in Delhi along with dissident MP Satabdi Roy.The development comes at a time when the rebel group, which claims the support of 19 Lok Sabha MPs, are getting ready to meet Speaker Om Birla on Monday to urge him to recognise them as a separate bloc and allow them to sit alongside the MPs of the ruling BJP-led NDA in the House.
Sudip Bandyopadhyay meets Amit Shah
Rebel TMC MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay also met Union Home Minister Amit Shah soon after meeting other senior BJP leaders.The TMC has been rocked by a rebellion by a large section of its lawmakers in the state and at the centre following its defeat in the West Bengal assembly elections. The party has 28 members in the Lok Sabha, and 13 in Rajya Sabha, of whom three have resigned so far.
Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Satabdi Roy meet Bhupender Yadav
TMC MP Satabdi Roy reached her residence, in Delhi. Earlier in the day, along with party MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay, she visited the residence of Union Minister and BJP leader Bhupender Yadav.
Rebel MP Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia said the dissident camp submitted a representation to the Speaker and would formally stake its claim on Monday. "We have submitted the letter...On Monday, we will go to the Speaker and stake our claim to form the real TMC parliamentary group.
We will ask the Speaker to give recognition to our claim," Basunia told PTI Videos.
20 rebel MPs are expected to reach Delhi ahead of Monday's meeting
He said the process to collect signatures began on June 8 and that 19 MPs had signed the representation. Sources said the timing of the meeting had not been finalised. Sources in the dissident camp said nearly 20 MPs are expected to reach Delhi ahead of Monday's meeting and hold consultations on their future course of action.
The announcement drew a sharp response from the TMC, which maintained that the dissidents' claim had no legal basis. Party MP Mahua Moitra said the Constitution's 91st Amendment had removed provisions for a split and that lawmakers seeking to leave a party would have to merge with another political party.
"Traitor TMC lawmakers don't know the law. Constitution 91st Amendment 2003 removed the provision for a split/separate bloc. The number of MPs is irrelevant -- 2/3 of the original political party has to merge with another party. All 19 traitors need to resign & contest on BJP ticket," she said in a post on X.
TMC MLA Kunal Ghosh demanded that the signatures circulating on social media be matched with the specimen signatures available with the Lok Sabha Secretariat to establish their authenticity.
Latest flashpoint comes amid TMC's worst organisational crisis in recent times
The latest flashpoint comes amid the TMC's worst organisational crisis in recent years, with a rebellion that began in West Bengal after the party's assembly election defeat now spilling over into Parliament.
Amid the churn within the party, a purported list carrying the names and signatures of 19 TMC Lok Sabha MPs was circulated online, though the purported letter to Birla was not in the public domain.
Sources close to the dissident camp claimed the MPs had informed the Lok Sabha Speaker about the formation of a separate parliamentary bloc under Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and conveyed their decision to support the BJP-led NDA while retaining a distinct political identity.
Dissident TMC leaders claimed that the document, which could not be independently verified, reflected support for their move. The list reportedly carries the signatures of Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Satabdi Roy, Bapi Haldar, Sharmila Sarkar, Prasun Bandyopadhyay, Jagadish Barma Basunia, Asit Kumar Mal, Arup Chakraborty, Rachna Banerjee, Saayoni Ghosh, Khalilur Rahaman, Abu Taher Khan, Yusuf Pathan, Mitali Bag, Mala Roy, Kalipada Soren, Deepak Adhikari, June Malia, and Partha Bhowmick.
BJP was attempting to engineer defections through "Operation Lotus": Kirti Azad
TMC MP Kirti Azad, however, alleged that the BJP was attempting to engineer defections through "Operation Lotus" and claimed that efforts to split the party had not succeeded. "Operation Lotus, under the guidance of Amit Shah, is underway," Azad said in a post on X on Friday, claiming that it had "failed so far".
Citing Rajya Sabha MP Prakash Chik Baraik's appearance outside BJP leader Nishikant Dubey's residence, a meeting of dissident MPs at Union minister Bhupender Yadav's residence, and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari's visit to TMC MP Satabdi Roy's residence, Azad alleged that there was an organised attempt to weaken the party.
Also Read:
Rebel TMC MPs to meet Lok Sabha Speaker, seek recognition as 'real TMC' | What we know so far
