New Delhi | The crisis in the Trinamool Congress deepened on Sunday as dissident MPs announced their merger with the little-known Nationalist Citizens Party of India and met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking a separate seating arrangement in the House, even as TMC parliamentary party leader Abhishek Banerjee urged Birla not to accord any recognition to the breakaway faction.
Lok Sabha MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay said the rebel faction would also fight in court to be recognised as the real TMC and will stake claim to its poll symbol.
Speaking to reporters after their meeting with Birla, rebel MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said 20 TMC MPs had signed a representation submitted to the Speaker.
"Two-thirds of TMC MPs have given a letter to the Speaker for a separate seating arrangement. We will merge with the Nationalist Citizens Party and support the NDA," she said.
The Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) is a Tripura-based registered unrecognised party that does not enjoy any significant political presence. It had contested from three seats in the 2023 Tripura polls, with its candidates finishing either behind NOTA or securing only a few votes more.
According to the dissident camp, the Speaker verified the signatures of the 20 MPs who backed the representation.
"We have merged with the Nationalist Citizens Party," Bandyopadhyay told reporters.
Asked about the competing claim of the Mamata Banerjee-led faction, he said the issue of who constituted the "real TMC" would be decided by the courts.
"This is the system. When you leave with 2/3rd of the party, you cannot demand the name of that party on the first day itself... In July, we will make a demand to give us Trinamool. Then the court will decide," he said.
"Court will decide later who is the real TMC. We met the Speaker and gave him our request. We will have a separate block in the next Lok Sabha session," Bandyopadhyay said, adding that they will also claim TMC's electoral symbol.
MP Satabdi Roy said they will take a call on their next step at the "right time".
She also said they did not claim the party symbol in the meeting with the Speaker, and added that Speaker will take a final call.
The dissident MPs met Union minister Bhupender Yadav at his house before meeting the Speaker. Later, the legislators had dinner at the Banga Bhawan in Delhi.
Meanwhile, TMC MPs Kirti Azad and Sagarika Ghose also submitted a letter to Birla on Sunday from Abhishek Banerjee urging him not to accord any recognition, status or facility to any purported separate faction, arguing that the Constitution and anti-defection law do not permit the formation of a separate group within an existing political party.
The letter dated June 10 had earlier been sent to the Speaker through email.
In the letter, Abhishek Banerjee requested that the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) be treated as a single political party represented in the House only through its duly authorised leader and whip and that the party be given an opportunity to present its case before any decision is taken on any communication from dissident MPs.
Citing the Supreme Court's Constitution Bench judgment in the Maharashtra political crisis case, Banerjee argued that the defence of a "split" is no longer available under the Tenth Schedule and that the legal framework contemplates identification of one political party, not recognition of rival factions within it.
After meeting the Speaker on Sunday, Azad said the Supreme Court's Constitution Bench had made it clear that a split within a political party was impermissible, while Ghose said the TMC was an "indivisible" party and the Constitution did not permit the formation of a separate group within the Lok Sabha.
Senior TMC MP Sougata Roy ridiculed the rebels' decision to merge with the NCPI, questioning both its political relevance and the dissidents' ability to justify the move before voters.
"Once you betray the party on whose symbol you were elected, how will you face your constituents? This merger is ridiculous. Who knows NCPI? Can they go to their constituencies and tell people that they are now part of NCPI? This merger reflects the desperation of the traitors to please their BJP masters," Roy told PTI.
Alleging that the move had the tacit backing of the BJP, Roy said the dissident MPs had chosen the NCPI route only because parliamentary rules do not permit the recognition of a separate bloc within an existing party.
On the "merger" by the rebel MPs, TMC MLA Madan Mitra said it showed their dishonesty.
"All MPs contested polls as TMC leaders, merging with other party reflects 'dishonesty'... The number required to form a separate party cannot be met with such a small group. There is still a long process ahead. Let us see how things unfold. TMC chief Mamata Banerjee will decide on further legal action," he said in Kolkata.
Meanwhile, Rajya Sabha MP and senior advocate Kapil Sibal said the rebel MPs should be disqualified.
"Will merge with Nationalist Citizens Party (NCP)... Indian Democracy has become the "theatre of the absurd". A joke !" Sibal said in a post on X.
"The rebels of the TMC legislative party cannot merge with a political party; that can happen only if the TMC wished to do so! Disqualify them!" he said.
The battle for control of the TMC is being fought simultaneously in Parliament and the West Bengal Assembly.
Last week, 64 of the party's 80 MLAs broke away and secured recognition as a separate legislative formation, with Ritabrata Banerjee being recognised as the Leader of Opposition.
That decision has been challenged by the Mamata Banerjee-led party before the Calcutta High Court.
New Delhi | A little-known political outfit that fielded four candidates in the 2023 Tripura Assembly polls with the slogan "reject political turncoats to save your rights" was catapulted into national limelight on Sunday after a rebel faction of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) comprising 20 Lok Sabha MPs announced its merger with it.
Records show that the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), the party in question, contested from four seats -- Chawamanu, Ambassa, Karamchara and Kailashahar -- in the 2023 Tripura polls, with its candidates finishing either behind NOTA or securing only a few votes more.
The party's campaign posters carried the message: "To save your rights, reject political turncoats. Support social workers, not political personalities", urging voters to press the symbol of a pen nib, which appeared to have been allotted to it as a Registered Unrecognised Political Party.
Its Chawamanu candidate, Barjeda Tripura, who secured 536 votes in the election, was surprised when PTI contacted him after the merger announcement.
"I contested the polls in 2023. What has happened now, three years later?" he asked, expressing disbelief after being told that a group of Lok Sabha MPs has joined the party that had fielded him.
Barjeda said he is a daily wage labourer. "In 2023, a person called Krishna Debbarma reached out to me about the election. So I contested. Many years ago, I was a supporter of the Congress," he told PTI.
Debbarma could not be reached for a comment.
Barjeda's election affidavit shows that he was 62 years old in 2023, had studied till Class 8, declared assets worth Rs 4 lakh and listed his profession as that of a social worker.
The Chawamanu seat was won by the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Sambhu Lal Chakma, who defeated TIPRA Motha's Hangsa Kumar Tripura by 2,899 votes. Barjeda finished fifth with 536 votes, narrowly ahead of the NOTA tally of 500.
The other three NCPI candidates contested the polls from Karamchara, Ambassa and Kailashahar. While Karamchara and Ambassa were won by the TIPRA Motha, the Congress won Kailashahar.
The development came as the TMC rebellion appeared to reach a crescendo on Sunday, with dissident MPs announcing their merger with the NCPI and meeting Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to seek separate seating arrangements in the House.
After meeting the speaker, rebel MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said two-thirds of the TMC's Lok Sabha members have submitted a letter to Birla, seeking recognition as a separate group.
"Two-thirds of the TMC MPs have given a letter to the speaker for a separate seating arrangement. We will merge with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India and support the NDA," Ghosh Dastidar said.
Senior TMC leader and Lok Sabha MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay said the dissident camp has already merged with the NCPI, describing it as a regional party.
Registered unrecognised political parties are parties that are registered with the Election Commission (EC) but are yet to meet the criteria to be recognised as state or national parties.
Mumbai | Amid intense speculation that some Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs might switch sides, party chief Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday held a meeting of his faction's Lok Sabha MPs, which all nine lawmakers attended either virtually or in person.
After the meeting, party's lone Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut said all MPs were loyalists and firmly stood by the party.
Four MPs attended the meeting in person, while four others marked their presence virtually and one Lok Sabha member spoke to Thackeray over phone, he said.
The meeting was held at Thackeray's 'Matoshree' residence in Bandra East area here in the afternoon.
The meeting assumed significance amid the buzz that some MPs might cross over to the ruling Shiv Sena, led by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde as part of the latter's 'Operation Tiger'.
In a social media post, Raut said four MPs, including three from Mumbai - Anil Desai, Arvind Sawant and Sanjay Patil - along with Nashik MP Rajabhau Waje, were present for the meeting in person.
Four other MPs - Omprakash Raje Nimbalkar (Dharashiv), Bhausaheb Wakchaure (Shirdi), Nagesh Bapurao Patil Ashtikar (Hingoli) and Sanjay Deshmukh (Yavatmal-Washim) - attended the meeting virtually, he said, adding that MP Sanjay Jadhav (Parbhani) spoke to Thackeray over phone.
Raut said party MLA Aaditya Thackeray was also present for the meeting.
"All MPs are firmly standing united and are loyally behind the Shiv Sena (UBT). Now at least, we hope the rumour mill will stop!" he said.
An MP, who was part of the meeting, said Nimbalkar attended the meeting online as his son has been admitted to a hospital, while Wakchaure is in Hyderabad attending to his wife who is admitted there.
Jadhav, who had skipped party meetings in the past, was also preoccupied, he said.
Deshmukh cited a similar reason and attended the meeting virtually, as did Ashtikar Patil, who is busy campaigning for his son contesting the legislative council polls, he added.
The MP said party chief Thackeray asked the lawmakers to keep an eye on the disbursal of farm loan waiver money announced by the Maharashtra government and also coordinate with party MLAs wherever possible.
Meanwhile, talking to reporters in Nanded later, Ashtikar said he could not attend the meeting in person but took part in it virtually. He also posted a video of the virtual meeting on social media.
"I could not go to Mumbai for the meeting as my son is contesting the upcoming legislative council elections from Nanded seat as a Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) candidate. Since only a few days are remaining, Uddhav Thackeray asked me to concentrate on the polls," he said.
On 'Operation Tiger', he said it was neither there in the , Jun 14 (PTI) past, nor will it happen in future. "They (Shiv Sena) have enough numbers, why would they take us?" he said.
He also said that nobody (from the rival faction) was in contact with him and vice versa. "These are just rumours. No one should believe in them...Those who say that a meeting took place between me and Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde then they should prove it. How long should we keep giving clarifications?" Ashtikar asked.