Former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress is witnessing a major revolt within the party following a disastrous poll debacle last month. What started as a rebellion in the TMC’s legislature wing has now snowballed into a full blow ‘split’ in its parliamentary ranks.
As many as 20 TMC MPs reportedly expressed a desire to ally with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). One Rajya Sabha MP has already quit the party, and 58 of 80 MLAs in the state assembly have formed a rebel group.
As discontent within a substantial section of the TMC and signs of internal cracks come into focus, here’s a look at how the numbers could stack up in Parliament and the state Assembly if party leaders rebel.
Lok Sabha
In the latest show of rebellion, as many as 20 Lok Sabha MPs, led by chief whip Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, wrote to Speaker Om Birla declaring support for the NDA, Dastidar confirmed to PTI on Monday.
“Nearly twenty TMC MPs, including me, have decided to write to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and formally support the NDA. We have sent a letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker and stated that we want to support the NDA,” she was quoted as saying.
Sources told PTI that the dissident MPs intend to argue before the Speaker that Ghosh Dastidar continues to be the valid chief whip of the party in the Lok Sabha.
Mamata Banerjee-led TMC had decided to remove Ghosh Dastidar as chief whip and replace her with Kalyan Banerjee, but that was not communicated to the Lok Sabha secretariat, another rebel TMC MP told PTI.
How TMC numbers stack up in Lok Sabha? Now, the TMC has 28 MPs in the Lok Sabha, with one vacancy following the death of Basirhat MP Haji Nurul Islam.
Of them, 20 are reportedly ready to extend support to the NDA. This leaves the Mamata Banerjee-led faction with only eight MPs.
Will these rebel MPs quit TMC and boost BJP’s strength in Lok Sabha? The MPs have chosen not to immediately resign from the TMC or join the BJP, sources in the rebel camp were quoted by PTI as saying.
Instead, they intend to function as a separate parliamentary bloc while supporting the NDA, a strategy designed to ensure protection under the anti-defection law. This would, therefore, benefit the NDA and increase the BJP’s strength in the Lok Sabha.
Rajya Sabha
In a fresh blow to the TMC, veteran Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Shekhar Ray resigned from the party and stepped down as a member of the Upper House.
TMC numbers in Rajya Sabha: The TMC has 13 MPs in the Rajya Sabha. The party’s tally came down to 12 with Ray’s resignation.
In a statement, Ray alleged rampant corruption in governance and the party organisation, and said public anger against the erstwhile TMC dispensation had reached alarming levels. He also launched a sharp attack on the TMC’s handling of the RG Kar hospital rape-murder case.
“I had publicly spoken out on the RG Kar hospital issue. Since then, I was increasingly isolated within the party. My only fault was that I demanded an internal inquiry against certain police officers because I believed they had a major role in destruction of evidence,” Ray told reporters in Delhi.
Will Ray join any other party? Ray said on Monday he had not taken any decision about joining another political party, and indicated that he might even retire from active politics. “I may withdraw from politics altogether,” he was quoted by PTI as saying.
West Bengal Assembly
Days ago, an unprecedented rebellion was reported in the TMC’s legislature wing in West Bengal, where 58 TMC MLAs broke ranks with the leadership and backed Ritabrata Banerjee for the post of Leader of the Opposition, rejecting the party’s official nominee Shovandeb Chattopadhyay.
TMC’s numbers in West Bengal Assembly: TMC has 80 MLAs in the West Bengal Assembly, and 58 MLAs
Ritabrata Banerjee claimed that the dissident camp enjoyed the support of a two-thirds majority of the TMC’s 80 MLAs and had formally staked its claim to lead the legislature party.
Will these MLAs resign from TMC and support NDA? These 58 MLAs did not quit the TMC, but West Bengal Assembly Speaker Rathindra Bose officially recognised them as a separate legislative bloc. On June 3, the Speaker officially elected expelled legislator Ritabrata Banerjee as Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly.
Earlier, in an interview with ANI, suspended TMC leader Riju Dutta assured that “whatever faction has split in the legislative party is still with the TMC. They have not formed any new party…”
He said, “Even today, the TMC has 42 MPs and 80 MLAs. When Didi [Mamata Banerjee] herself sat on the protest, there were four MPs and seven MLAs with her. When the Chief Minister called an administrative meeting, there were 20 MLAs there…”
Could TMC MLA’s rebellion boost BJP’s support in Assembly? Without explicitly indicating that the rebel camp will support the BJP in the Assembly, Banerjee said last week that the dissident camp would function as a constructive opposition and not indulge in obstructionism.
“We will oppose the government’s policies that we don’t think are right. But we will not oppose for the sake of opposition,” he said on June 3. “We will play the role of a responsible and constructive opposition. We will fight the government eye to eye where necessary, but we will also appreciate positive steps taken by it,” he said back then.
He had even thanks Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari for inviting opposition legislators to an administrative meeting at the state secretariat ‘Nabanna’ earlier in the day, he said rebel MLAs from Kolkata, Howrah and North 24 Parganas had attended the meeting.
Banerjee, however, sought to temper the rebellion by urging TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee to serve as chief adviser to the newly constituted legislature team. “We would request Mamata Banerjee to play the role of the chief adviser of the legislative party,” he was quoted as saying.
The revolt by TMC MPs and MLAs exposed deep fissures within the organisation following the party’s defeat in the West Bengal Assembly Elections, and fuelled concerns that the unrest could spread beyond the House.
