LS Speaker sets September 22 deadline for NCPI MPs on disqualification petitions

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday granted time till September 22 to the 20 MPs of the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), following petitions filed by the Mamata-Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) seeking their disqualification under the anti-defection law.

The time was granted by the Speaker after the NCPI MPs asked for the extended period to reply to his August 26 notices that had sought their responses in seven days.

The Speaker has granted time till September 22 to the NCPI MPs to reply to the notices, sources in Parliament said. Birla sent the notices after TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee filed petitions seeking their disqualification.

The 20 rebel TMC MPs quit the Mamata Banerjee-led party in June following its debacle in the West Bengal Assembly polls and joined the little-known outfit, NCPI.

Birla had served the notices after the Supreme Court on August 25 agreed to hear Abhishek Banerjee’s plea seeking an expeditious decision by the speaker on the petitions seeking disqualification of the rebel MPs.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana issued a notice to the 20 MPs on Banerjee’s plea, and directed that the disqualification proceedings before the speaker be dealt with expeditiously.

Abhishek Banerjee had approached the top court after filing separate petitions before the speaker in June seeking disqualification of the MPs who had left the TMC and aligned themselves with the NCPI. The speaker’s notices subsequently asked the MPs to submit their responses within seven days. The additional time gives the rebel camp some breathing space as it weighs the legal and political implications of the disqualification proceedings, the sources said.

The MPs are also understood to be seeking legal opinions on the applicability of the anti-defection provisions to their case and the arguments that can be advanced before the Speaker.

The dispute over the 20 Lok Sabha seats is the latest flashpoint in a broader rupture that has transformed the TMC’s internal crisis into a direct institutional and political contest after its defeat in the West Bengal election in May.

The dissident camp has already sought to demonstrate that it commands substantial support within the party’s elected representatives.

In the West Bengal Assembly, 65 of the TMC’s 80 MLAs had backed Ritabrata Banerjee’s claim to the leader of opposition’s post, rejecting the nominee supported by the Mamata Banerjee camp. After joining the NCPI, the 20 MPs have announced their allegiance to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA.