Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will hear the defected All India Trinamool Congress MPs, as well as parliamentarians from the Mamata Banerjee-led group, before deciding whether to grant recognition to the breakaway faction. Meanwhile, the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), the little-known political party joined by the rebel faction, has named Jyotiprakash Chatterji as its new president.
One of the leading faces of the TMC rebel faction, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, claimed on 16 June that the NCPI has agreed to accept all dissident Lok Sabha members from her party, with their numbers likely to rise to 22 from the current 20.
Birla will hear the defected TMC MPs, as well as those led by Mamata Banerjee, before deciding whether to recognise the breakaway faction, sources privy to the development said.
If the speaker accepts the TMC rebels’ plea, the NCPI will become the second-largest NDA constituent in the Lok Sabha, ahead of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which has 16 MPs, and the Janata Dal (United), which has 12 MPs.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has 239 members on its own, excluding the speaker.
In a related development, Abhishek Banerjee was called for a meeting with Birla at a two-hour notice when he was still being questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Kolkata in connection with its probe into the alleged primary school teachers’ recruitment scam in West Bengal, news agency PTI said, citing TMC sources.
Abhishek Banerjee got an email from the speaker’s office around 2 PM on Monday, asking him to meet Birla at 4 PM. Soon after, the speaker’s office called TMC MP Kirti Azad and told him about the email.
Azad informed the speaker’s office that Abhishek Banerjee is “committed to cooperating with all investigative agencies” and is cooperating with the ED probe in Kolkata, the sources said.
They added that Abhishek Banerjee returned home after his questioning only around midnight.
In a fast-paced development, the NCPI, which has been thrust into the spotlight after the TMC rebel faction announced a merger with it, named Chatterji as its new president, according to Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar.
Dastidar’s statement came a day after NCPI founder Shewli Kundu said she has stepped down as the party chief, triggering speculation that Dastidar herself has taken charge of the NCPI.
Responding to a PTI query on Tuesday, Dastidar said Chatterji is the new NCPI president.
However, little is known about Chatterji, as is the case with the party itself.
Shantanu Dey, who calls himself the NCPI’s national organisation general secretary, told PTI that he has no information about the new president.
“I do not know who Jyotiprakash Chatterji is. I have no idea what is happening with the NCPI, a party for which I worked so hard. I am glad that major leaders are joining us, but we have not been contacted by them yet.
“I am disheartened by the fact that we are being kept in the dark,” Dey, whose name also finds mention as the NCPI’s general secretary in the party’s old campaign posters, said.
The NCPI was registered as a political party in January 2023, with its address listed in the Election Commission’s (EC) records as a building in Sankrail in West Bengal’s Howrah district.
Asked about the next move of the rebel TMC MPs, Ghosh Dastidar said they want to settle down first after merging with another party.
“Acceptance has already come to us. They (NCPI) are happy to take us. We will work together with the NDA under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah,” the lawmaker from West Bengal’s Barasat told reporters at the Parliament House complex.
Asked about her faction’s strength, Ghosh Dastidar said, “Currently, we are 20 (MPs). The number may go up to 22.”
In total, 29 MPs were elected to the Lok Sabha on TMC tickets in the 2024 general election. One MP passed away some time ago, and the seat remains vacant.
On relations with the rebel TMC MLAs in West Bengal, Ghosh Dastidar said the dissident MPs have no connection with the state legislators. “We have no connection with them. They are a separate group; their issues and agenda are different,” she said.
The Mamata Banerjee-led TMC, however, dismissed the breakaway group as a “gaddar team” and asserted that the TMC remains under the control of the former West Bengal chief minister.
“There are two teams – the TMC team and the gaddar (traitor) team. The TMC team is led by Mamata Banerjee. The gaddar team is led by Narendra Modi. The (poll) symbol of the TMC team is the much-loved twin flowers (jora phool). The symbol of the gaddar team is the nib of a pen,” senior party leader and MP Saugata Roy said.
Azad said: “The real TMC is led by didi and everyone knows that didi is Mamata Banerjee. The other group is a party of traitors.”
Meanwhile, rebel MP Rachna Banerjee, who met Lok Sabha Secretary General Utpal Kumar Singh on Tuesday and signed the document for the merger, denied that the dissident lawmakers are acting against Mamata Banerjee personally, while defending their decision to align with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
“There can never be any rebellion against her. We have shared a very old relationship with didi and that relationship will always remain the same,” she said.
Sudip Bandyopadhyay, the seniormost face in the rebel group, said the first phase of the merger process was completed on Sunday, and if they are called again for a second round, then further discussions will take place.
He said the next steps will be taken before the Monsoon session of Parliament, which normally begins in the third week of July.
“Discussions are taking place on how both sides will sit together, come closer and determine the future course of action for the group. The TMC has its own symbols, assets and other organisational matters. Decisions will have to be taken regarding all these issues. Experience suggests that many of these matters will ultimately be settled in court,” Bandyopadhyay said.
He said the speaker’s responsibilities include recognising and constituting the parliamentary bloc and allocating party office space, and these tasks are expected to be completed expeditiously.
‘Exception to disqualification’
Former Lok Sabha secretary general and constitutional expert PDT Achary cited paragraph 4 of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution to underline that only a political party may merge with another party, and MPs or MLAs cannot merge.
Paragraph 4 of the 10th Schedule deals with the exception to disqualification in case of a merger.
It says that a member of a House will not be disqualified if the original political party to which he belonged merges with another political party, provided that not less than two-thirds of the members of the legislature party concerned agree to such a merger.
Achary told PTI that if the leadership of a political party decides to merge with another party, its MLAs and MPs must agree to the merger, “but the MPs or MLAs alone cannot merge with another political party. This is the constitutional provision”.
An EC official said the NCPI will have to “report” the new developments to the poll authority in due course and that there is “no tearing hurry” to inform the poll body.
A former EC official, who dealt with political parties in the poll panel, termed the TMC rebels’ plan to merge with the NCPI an “innovation” that has no mention in either the anti-defection law or the Representation of the People Act.
TMC national general secretary Banerjee has already written to Birla, disputing the merger proposal of the rebel MPs.
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