KOLKATA/NEW DELHI: Days after the Trinamool Congress suffered a major split in the West Bengal Assembly, the party appears to be staring at a possible exodus of its parliamentarians.
On Friday, a veteran Trinamool MP claimed that the party could crumble in Parliament “sooner than anybody imagined”, mirroring the dizzying pace at which Mamata Banerjee’s MLAs had abandoned her on Wednesday. “I have come to know from two or three most reliable sources that a similar collapse of the parliamentary party might also happen soon,” he told the media in Delhi.
According to sources, at least 20 Lok Sabha MPs may form a separate bloc and drift away from the TMC, similar to the coup in the Assembly. It will be led by a senior TMC leader, a source said.
A rebel camp in Parliament requires the support of around 20 Lok Sabha MPs and Rajya Sabha members. BJP’s political managers have set the target, and that’s why CM Suvendu Adhikari and the state BJP president have been asked to come to Delhi, said a political observer. “The blueprint was similar to the coup on Wednesday in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly, where the rebel camp of 58 out of 80 Trinamool Congress MLAs claimed themselves to be the ‘real Trinamool’ and elected Ritabrata Bandyopadhyay as the Leader of the Opposition in the House,” they said, adding that many TMC MPs are already in touch with the BJP’s central leadership.
Speculation about a split in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha gained momentum following a social media post made by Kakoli Ghosh Dastider, Trinamool Congress’ four-time MP from Barasat, slamming party supremo Mamata Banerjee for the party’s disastrous defeat to the BJP in the Assembly elections in April. “The mandate is against policy and failure of governance,” she wrote.
The Barasat MP, a longtime aide of Mamata for four decades, also expressed her disappointment after the party leadership removed her from the post of chief whip in the Lok Sabha, saying it was a reward for her loyalty over four decades. “Do you think an MP of four terms from a political family, having been with Mamata Banerjee and fighting autocracy for four decades, thinks of self?” she asked.
Adding to the speculation, Humayun Kabir, an expelled TMC MLA who now heads his own party, Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP), claimed while speaking to a national news channel that Trinamool MPs are contemplating a move to remove Mamata’s nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, as the leader of the party in the Lok Sabha. The party will split again over this issue, he added. Kabir won the Nawada Assembly constituency in Murshidabad on an AJUP ticket.
A rebel faction requires a two-thirds majority to bypass the anti-defection law under the Tenth Schedule. The Trinamool Congress, the third-largest party in Parliament after the BJP and the Congress, has 28 Lok Sabha members at the moment, following the death of Basirhat MP Haji Nurul Islam, and 13 Rajya Sabha members.
Considering the unprecedented crisis the Trinamool Congress has faced since its formation in 1998, Mamata Banerjee held a meeting with party leaders and made some organisational reshuffles, clipping the wings of Abhishek Banerjee, according to party insiders. Chandrima Bhattacharya has been appointed the party’s state president, replacing old guard Subrata Bakshi.
Significantly, no one from the rebel camp was seen at the meeting. Only old guards like Firhad Hakim, Madan Mitra, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, Ashok Deb, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Abhishek Banerjee were present, among others.