Rebel TMC MLAs won't merge with Nationalist Citizens Party: Ritabrata Banerjee

Rebel TMC leader Ritabharata Banerjee distanced his MLA faction from the rebel MPs' decision to merge with the NCPI, saying they have no plans to follow suit.

In Short

• 20 dissident MPs merge with NCPI, meet Lok Sabha Speaker
• Rebel MLA leader Ritabrata Banerjee says no such move planned
• 64 rebel MLAs seek floor test in West Bengal Assembly

Rebel Trinamool Congress leader Ritabharata Banerjee, under whom a majority of the party's MLAs have rallied against the official leadership, said on Friday that the legislators will not follow the rebel MPs' decision to join the National Citizens Party of India (NCPI).

Banerjee, the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, who claims the support of 64 of the party's 80 MLAs, categorically said that the dissident legislators have neither discussed nor considered joining the little-known NCPI.

"I have seen through the media that they have decided to merge with this National Citizens Party of India. So it is their decision. Their collective has taken such a decision. As far as our collective is concerned, we have no such idea," he said.

Banerjee pointed out that the rebel MLA camp was aware of the development only through media reports and that there was no question of any similar move on its part.

"In fact, whatever we have seen, we have seen through the media. As far as the legislative party is concerned, we do not know any such thing. So this question does not arise," he added.

The crisis in the TMC deepened on Sunday when 20 dissident MPs, led by Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, out of the party's 28 MPs, announced their merger with the NCPI and met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking a separate seating arrangement in Parliament.

The NCPI is a Tripura-based registered but unrecognised party with little political presence. It contested three seats in the 2023 Tripura Assembly elections, with its candidates either finishing behind NOTA or securing only a marginally higher vote count.

Lok Sabha MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay also said the rebel faction would move the court to seek recognition as the real TMC and stake claim to the party's election symbol.

Meanwhile, TMC MPs Kirti Azad and Sagarika Ghose submitted a letter to Om Birla from Abhishek Banerjee, urging him not to accord any recognition, status or facilities to any purported separate faction. They argued that the Constitution and the anti-defection law do not permit the formation of a separate group within an existing political party.

The official camp maintains that the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, commonly known as the anti-defection law, makes it clear that an entire political party must merge, and not merely a group of its MPs.

The Mamata Banerjee-led party suffered an unprecedented twin rebellion in both the Assembly and Parliament following its rout in the recently concluded Assembly elections, plunging the outfit into its gravest organisational crisis since its formation in 1998. A section of the anger has been directed at party General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee and Mamata Banerjee's continued support for him.

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.

On Friday, he claimed that all dissident MLAs, constituting more than two-thirds of the TMC's Assembly strength, had submitted their names to the Speaker and said a floor test could be ordered to verify the competing claims of support.

The TMC, however, has dismissed the dissident camp's claims as politically motivated and maintained that the party remains united under its leadership.

- Ends