19 signatories, 20 serial numbers: Mystery over 20th TMC rebel as party heads for split

TWo Trinamool united states congress MPs who ar constituent of those rebelling against the company said they had signed a letter of the alphabet expressing support for a separate parliamentary party faction of the TMC, and also staking claim to the party symbol, adding that this was sent to the Speaker.The Speaker’s office has not confirmed receipt of the letter, but Friday’s developments indicate momentum building up ahead of the TMC splitting, with the rebels succeeding in their effort to be recognised as the TMC, although this is contingent on them having the requisite numbers. The TMC ruled West Bengal for 15 consecutive years until its defeat by the Bharatiya Janata Party in May.The other scenario is more messy –– resignations from the party, re-elections, and other such.“Yes, I have signed the letter and we sent it to the Speaker quite some time ago,” Kakoli Dastidar told HT.Another TMC MP, Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia added that the letter “makes it clear” that “we are the TMC in the Lok Sabha”.Neither commented on the number of MPs who had signed the letter. HT has not seen a copy of the letter.Letter fuels speculation of splitAccording to people familiar with the matter, the letter is dated May 18 and has been signed by 19 MPs; interestingly, the serial numbers of the signatories are from 1 to 20, with no signature against number 13, stoking speculation that a multi-term MP could be the 20th to align with the rebel group.According to people aware of the details, as per the procedure, the Speaker will take a call on the request to identify the rebel group as the original TMC; part of this involves a face-to-face meeting with them. There are 28 lawmakers of the TMC in the Lok Sabha, including Abhishek Banerjee, the MP from Diamond Harbour who is also party supremo and former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew. He is in the crosshairs of the rebel group.Also Read: Letter would be out if they had 20: Mahua Moitra challenges claim by TMC rebels“The Speaker’s decision will be announced after examining the letter and the authenticity of the signatures etc. So far, these MPs have only indicated that they want to be seen as a separate parliamentary group. There is no communication to suggest that they want to merge with the Bharatiya Janata Party, although the leader of the rebel group, Kakoli Dastidar has said that they want to support the NDA,” said one of the people cited above, who asked not to be named.The letter, according to the people cited above, has been signed by 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.TMC insiders continued to maintain that the rebel faction did not have 19 MPs.Options before rebel MPsIf the group chooses to merge with the BJP, the rebels will not face disqualification as they will meet the criteria of two-thirds of the party merging with another. To escape the provisions of the anti defection law, two-thirds of the lawmakers need to be part of the faction; that works out to 18.66 (rounding of to 19). In the event the faction claims to be the original party (as indeed, breakaway factions of the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party successfully did), they will have to approach the election commission with proof of legislative majority.TMC MP Mohua Mitra in a post on X said, “Traitor TMC lawmakers don’t know law. Constitution 91st Amendment 2003 removed provision for split/ separate bloc. Number of MPs is irrelevant- 2/3 of original political party has to MERGE with another party. All 19 traitors need to resign and contest on BJP ticket.” To be sure, that’s not how it went down in the case of the Shiv Sena and the NCP.In the Rajya Sabha, the TMC’s tally has gone down from 13 to 10 with three MPs, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Sushmita Dev and Prakash Chik Baraik resigning. The BJP with a majority in the assembly will win all three when the bypolls are announced.The TMC’s defeat in the assembly polls precipitated the rebellion in the party with several leaders claiming that their views and suggestions were disregarded; many pinned the blame on Abhishek Banerjee. Senior MP Kalyan Banerjee told mediapersons that he had asked former CM and party chief Mamamta Banerjee to choose between him and Abhishek Banerjee.The BJP, which stands to gain from the support by the rebel groups, has opted to watch from the sidelines. National general secretary Tarun Chugh, who was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradeshon Thursday, told media persons that the “implosion” within the TMC was a fallout of the “sins” by the party leaders.“...The party’s leaders, who turned West Bengal into a hub of corruption and appeasement, now face the burden of their sins after being ousted by the people,” he said.A second BJP  functionary said the rebels have been in touch with senior party leaders of their own volition. Rebels led by Kakoli Dasgupta met union minister Bhupender Yadav at his residence in Delhi this week. Yadav was in charge of the state and is credited for overseeing the BJP’s election strategy resulting in the party’s first ever win in Bengal.“The BJP fought and won the state assembly election fair and square. We did not want to break the TMC, the leaders reached out to us. They want to support the NDA and the nationalist ideology. It is up to them to decide if they want to follow what Eknath Shinde (Shiv Sena) and the late Ajit Pawar (NCP) did or whether they want to merge like the AAP (‘s Rajya Sabha members),” the leader said.In April, 10 AAP lawmakers in the Rajya Sabha announced they were “merging” with the BJP  and conveyed this to the chair of the Upper House CP Radhakrishnan. Since two-thirds of the members resigned they were not liable for disqualification under the anti-defection law, which stipulates that two-thirds of the elected members of the party have to agree to merge with another.In 2022, Shinde led a group of rebels against the party chief and CM Uddhav Thackeray. The Election Commission recognised the Shinde faction as the main party, granting it the bow and arrow symbol, while the other faction led by Thackeray was renamed Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) with a flaming torch as its symbol.A year later, Ajit Pawar, rebelled against his uncle and joined the NDA and was later allowed to retain the party’s name and symbol by the poll panel. The faction led by Sharad Pawar is now known as NCP– Sharadchandra Pawar and has been allotted a new symbol.The second functionary admitted that there is some disquiet among the BJP’s cadres in the state. “ A section of party leaders are against the merger of these TMC rebels with the BJP, and them being made part of the Union cabinet in the event they join the NDA.” Still, support from 19 MPs in the Lok Sabha will help the NDA pass key bills including the Delimitation bill and the bill for rolling out simultaneous elections.