NEW DELHI: The 20 Lok Sabha MPs who broke away from the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) have sought another four weeks to respond to petitions seeking their disqualification under the anti-defection law, after their latest deadline expired on Tuesday, leaving the next step with Speaker Om Birla.
Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, parliamentary chairperson of the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), said the MPs had yet to gather all the documents needed for their response and had requested an extension from the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
The decision is awaited as Mamata Banerjee fights a separate battle in the Supreme Court to reclaim her party’s name and election symbol ahead of the October 6 bypolls in West Bengal.
The rebel MPs had quit the Banerjee-led party in June following its defeat in the West Bengal Assembly polls and joined the little-known outfit Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI). The TMC has sought their disqualification under the anti-defection law.
Early this month, the Speaker granted the 20 rebel TMC MPs until September 22 to respond to petitions seeking their disqualification under the anti-defection law, according to sources.
Birla had issued notices to the MPs on August 26, giving them seven days to respond. He later extended the deadline to September 22 at their request, sources said.
The extension gave the rebel camp more time to weigh its response to the disqualification petitions and their possible legal and political consequences, sources said.
The Speaker's notices followed the Supreme Court’s decision to hear TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee’s plea seeking an early ruling on the petitions.
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.
Meanwhile, the Mamata-led TMC faction was quick to respond to the rebel group's extension request.
"Which party they are in now — do they need time to say that? These turncoats, opportunists and ungrateful people make tall claims, conduct Facebook revolutions and win elections on anti-BJP votes only to serve the BJP, but cannot even answer a notice?" asked TMC leader Kunal Ghosh.
The latest move comes against the backdrop of renewed speculation about the rebel MPs' political destination.
Last week, rebel MP Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia had claimed that 17 of the 20 NCPI MPs would join the BJP before or after Durga Puja. Fellow dissident MPs rejected the claim, and the BJP also distanced itself from it.
Meanwhile, the TMC also suffered a major blow after the Election Commission (EC) allotted separate names and symbols to the two rival factions amid the bitter tussle over the party’s name and election symbol of ‘Twin Flowers and Grass’ last week.
The EC awarded the name ‘Mamata All India Trinamool Congress’ and the ‘footballer’ symbol to Banerjee’s faction, and the name ‘Democratic Trinamool Congress’ and the ‘envelope’ symbol to the rebel grouping.
In Nandigram, Banerjee’s faction has withdrawn its candidate, Sanchita Pradhan Dey, and announced support for the Congress nominee.
However, the Supreme Court on Monday agreed to urgently list Mamata Banerjee’s petition challenging the EC’s interim decision to freeze the TMC’s name and its reserved ‘Flowers & Grass’ election symbol.
Incidentally, both Houses of Parliament are still to be prorogued, more than 40 days after the Monsoon Session was adjourned sine die, fuelling speculation that the Centre could convene a special sitting to introduce a delimitation bill.