TMC MPs stage a Parliamentary coup
Without resigning from the party, 20 MPs rebel to extend issue-based support to the NDA in the LS
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) faced its biggest crisis on Monday when 20 out of its 28 Lok Sabha MPs, led by party chief whip Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, officially announced their support for the BJP-led NDA.
The dissident MPs sent a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to announce their support for the ruling alliance.
“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 and stated that we want to support the NDA,” Kakoli Dastidar said. The TMC currently has 28 seats, with one vacant after Basirhat MP Haji Nurul Islam’s death.
The dissident MPs have not left the TMC or joined the BJP. Instead, they plan to act as a separate group and provide support to the NDA on specific issues, thereby helping them avoid problems under the anti-defection law. The support of 20 MPs exceeds the two-thirds required for legal protection.
According to sources among the rebels, Ghosh Dastidar remains the official chief whip because the TMC never formally informed the Lok Sabha Secretariat of her replacement by Kalyan Banerjee.
“We have accepted the people’s verdict and believe that our future political course should be aligned with the NDA,” Dastidar added. Party insiders say the dissident MPs held a closed-door meeting in Delhi on Sunday before finalising the letter to the Speaker. Whether more MPs join the fray remains to be seen.
The move, which comes days after party MLAs rebelled against party leadership’s decision on the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly and in favor of expelled legislator Ritabrata Banerjee, has caused a clear split in the party’s parliamentary group. The timing of the split is especially difficult for Banerjee, who was in Delhi for an INDIA bloc meeting of 23 Opposition parties, against the BJP.
For Mamta Bannerjee, the 71-year-old supremo, who has ruled West Bengal with an iron fist for over a decade, the developments mark a dramatic reversal. The TMC, once the pivot of the Opposition INDIA bloc, now faces the prospect of losing nearly three-fourths of its Lok Sabha strength without a single resignation letter.
The blow extends beyond West Bengal. It weakens the Opposition’s numerical heft in the Parliament and hands the NDA an unexpected psychological victory.
The message from the parliamentary group is clear. Banerjee’s authority is now being challenged even in New Delhi. The TMC leadership has not yet responded, but their silence is telling. What started as a problem in West Bengal has now become a national issue. For Banerjee, the fight to save her party has shifted from Kolkata to New Delhi.
RS resignation rocks TMC
New Delhi: Senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Sukhendu Sekhar Ray resigned from the Rajya Sabha and the party on June 8, dealing a significant political and symbolic blow to both the TMC and the Opposition INDIA bloc. Ray’s resignation reduces the TMC’s strength in the Rajya Sabha from 13 to 12 seats and creates a vacancy requiring a by-election. A founding member of the TMC and former Chief Whip, Ray cited “anarchical rule”, corruption, crimes against women, and failures in health, education and law and order as reasons for quitting. His subsequent meeting with TMC Lok Sabha MPs fuelled speculation of further defections.
