20 TMC MPs merge with little-known Tripura party

AT to the lowest degree 20 renegade lawmakers of the Trinamool united states congress (TMC) on sun told talker Om Birla that they have merged with a little-known Tripura-based party, strengthening the National Democratic Alliance and setting the stage for one of the biggest defections in India’s parliamentary history.At least 20 lawmakers of the TMC met Birla on Sunday and submitted a letter that said the rebel group had merged with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India or NCPI, which was formed in 2022 and fought its last election in 2023.The party currently doesn’t have a lawmaker anywhere in the country. According to a Lok Sabha functionary, Birla will now verify the signatures of 20 MPs before approving the merger.“We, 20 MPs, have now merged with the Nationalist Citizens Party and will work with the NDA under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah,” said rebel MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, after the meeting with Birla.The meeting of the rebels with Birla came hours after lawmakers Sagarika Ghose and Kirti Azad, both loyalists of party chief Mamata Banerjee, met Birla and handed over a letter from the TMC’s Lok Sabha floor leader Abhishek Banerjee. The letter said that “split is no longer available under the Tenth Schedule” and TMC is “a single, indivisible political party”.The merger, if approved, will increase the NDA’s strength from 294 to 314 in the Lok Sabha, still short of 46 seats to secure a two-thirds majority in the Lower House. In the Upper House, the ruling dispensation can reach 155 seats, just right seats short of the two-third majority.A BJP MP, who was involved in the discussions, said the NCPI is an unrecognised party, which fought polls in West Bengal, Tripura and Meghalaya.“The decision to merge with NCPI was taken to retain the rebels’ connection with West Bengal, but also give the Northeast a better representation in the Lok Sabha,” said the BJP MP.In a meeting with Birla on Sunday evening, 19 TMC lawmakers handed over a letter expressing their wish to join the NCPI. Rachana Banerjee, a first-time MP currently in Malaysia, gave her consent in the letter, making it a 20 lawmakers group.The crisis was triggered after the TMC lost the assembly polls last month to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which formed its first-ever government in the eastern state. In Bengal, 59 MLAs formed a breakaway faction with Ritabrata Banerjee as the Leader of the Opposition in the assembly, and Dastidar voiced her dissent after she was dropped from the chief whip’s post.The TMC, which played a key role in defeating the Constitution amendment bill implementing women’s quota and delimitation, will get reduced to just eight seats in the Lower House if the merger goes through. In the Rajya Sabha, its strength has been reduced from 13 to 10.A weakened TMC will also affect the INDIA bloc’s ability to counter the BJP in Parliament. The TMC developments come weeks after a rebellion in the Aam Aadmi Party in the Rajya Sabha.Former TMC Lok Sabha floor leader Sudip Bandopadhyay, former party chief whip and a key rebel face Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, deputy leader Shatabdi Ray, popular filmstars Deepak Adhikari, Saayoni Ghosh and June Maliah were among the 20 rebels. Arup Chakraborty, Partha Bhowmik, cricketer Yusuf Pathan, Sharmila Sarkar, Mala Ray, former Indian football captain Prasun Banerjee, Asit Mal, Khalilur Rehman, Abu Taher Khan, Jagadish Basunia, Kalipada Soren, Mitali Bag, Bapi Haldar and Khalilur Rehman were also present in the meeting.In April this year, rebel AAP MP Raghav Chadha and six other MPs quit the AAP and joined the BJP.The 20 TMC rebels may save their seats by joining the NCPI, senior lawyer and independent MP Kapil Sibal said that they should be expelled. “TMC rebels : Will merge with Nationalist Citizens Party (NCP) Indian Democracy has become the “theatre of the absurd” A joke ! The rebels of the TMC legislative party cannot merge with a political party ; that can happen only if the TMC wished to do so ! Disqualify them !” he posted on X.The 10th Schedule of the Constitution says that disqualification will not apply if the original political party merges with another party and at least two-thirds of the members of the legislature party agree to such a merger.The TMC leadership indicated that it might go to court, just as AAP’s Sanjay Singh did after seven party MPs joined the BJP.Ghose said, “Rebel TMC leaders, who won on TMC symbol and due to Mamata Banerjee, they are now standing with folded hands before BJP, this is moral weakness.”In his letter to Birla, Abhishek Banerjee wrote, “My attention has been drawn to news reports to the effect that certain members of the Lok Sabha belonging to the AITC have submitted, or propose to submit, a communication to your good office seeking to be recognised as a separate group or faction of the AITC, independent of the legislative party.”Citing the Supreme Court’s judgment in the Maharashtra political crisis case, the TMC leader argued a “split” is no longer available under the Tenth Schedule and that the legal framework identifies only one political party.“The AITC is a single, indivisible political party... There is in law only one AITC, one Leader of the Party in the House, and one Whip, all of whom hold office by authority of the political party and its competent organisational authority. No member or set of members can, by their own volition, carve out a parallel “group” or “faction” of the same party and claim independent recognition within the House,” the letter added.A regional party based primarily on the charisma of Mamata Banerjee, the TMC now faces a fresh battle for survival. The TMC brass once shunned the prospects of seat sharing with the Congress. Last week, Mamata Banerjee met Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, and Abhishek Banerjee met Rahul Gandhi to firm up ties and strengthen the INDIA bloc.