Beleaguered Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee landed in Delhi on Sunday with the avowed objective of resurrecting the INDIA bloc which she was once critical of and maintained a distance
Beleaguered Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee landed in Delhi on Sunday with the avowed objective of resurrecting the INDIA bloc — which she was once critical of and maintained a distance from — amid indications that a section of her Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs are getting ready to chart a separate course.
TMC sources said efforts were on to replicate the Kolkata model of MLAs breaking away and forming a separate group and electing a new leader in the parliamentary wing of the party. The TMC’s organisational leadership is said to be making a last-ditch attempt to prevent a split in the parliamentary party, but several MPs are incommunicado, it is learnt.
“There is a possibility and the process has already started as far as the Lok Sabha is concerned. What has happened in the West Bengal Assembly will be repeated in Lok Sabha so far as our party is concerned,” TMC’s Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Ray told The Indian Express. He said the process had not started in the Upper House yet. “The process was completed in the Assembly and has begun in the Lok Sabha. So, naturally, the phenomenon will follow in the Rajya Sabha as well. But it has not started yet,” he said.
Banerjee, who arrived in Delhi, met with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor Arvind Kejriwal along with her nephew and second-in-command Abhishek Banerjee, who is under fire from the rebel MLAs who have elected their own legislature party leadership. Mamata and Kejriwal are known to share a warm relationship. The TMC said Mamata and Abhishek, the TMC’s parliamentary party leader, “held an extensive discussion on the road ahead” with Kejriwal. “When the people of India unite, no force on earth can stop their march towards justice, dignity and a better future in 2029,” the TMC said.
It is not yet clear whether two-thirds of the TMC’s 28 Lok Sabha MPs have decided to chart a separate course. “A handful of our MPs are up to something, but I don’t know whether they have the support of 19 MPs,” a party leader said. At present, the TMC has 28 MPs in the Lok Sabha and 13 in the Rajya Sabha.
The TMC leadership’s apprehension is that some of the MPs are planning to do “something” on Monday to coincide with the INDIA bloc meeting, which is scheduled to begin at 12 pm. Mamata and Abhishek are in Delhi to attend the meeting.
Sources said a section of MPs might approach Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Monday, with the rebel camp confident that 20 MPs are with them. An MP close to Mamata Banerjee is learnt to be in constant touch with the party’s MPs, while the dissidents too are following suit. Sources close to the former West Bengal CM acknowledged chances of the Lok Sabha group breaking, but are confident that at least 16 MPs will stay with her. This will deprive the rebels of the two-third majority which is needed to escape provisions of the anti-defection law. The party is also weighing options of going to court on the state Assembly issue.
TMC sources said Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, along with some other MPs, were already in touch with Birla. Sources also indicated that a section of Rajya Sabha MPs too are not happy with the party. Like the MLAs who broke away, a section of both TMC Lok Sabha and Rajya MPs are unhappy with Abhishek Banerjee, it is learnt.
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