TMC Splits in Lok Sabha: 20 Rebel MPs Form Separate Bloc, Mamata Camp Countermoves with Disqualification Demand

New Delhi: Twenty members of Trinamool Congress's 28-strong Lok Sabha contingent walked into Speaker Om Birla's residence on Sunday and formally declared they were breaking away. They told him they had merged with a Tripura-based outfit called the Nationalist Citizens Party of India and wanted to be seated in the House as a separate bloc.
The Mamata Banerjee camp moved just as fast. Minutes before the rebels reached the Speaker, loyalist MPs Sagarika Ghose and Kirti Azad handed him a letter from TMC Parliamentary Party leader Abhishek Banerjee, asking the Speaker to refuse the rebel group any recognition, status or facility whatsoever.

Who was in the room?

The rebel group included senior TMC faces are Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Satabdi Roy, Yusuf Pathan, Saayoni Ghosh, June Malia, and Jagdish Basunia, among others. Before heading to the Speaker's 20 Akbar Road residence, they had gathered at the official home of Union Minister Bhupender Yadav, who had been the BJP's Bengal election in-charge.

Ghosh Dastidar told reporters the 20 MPs represented more than two-thirds of the TMC's Lok Sabha strength and would now work with the NDA under the Prime Minister. Bandyopadhyay added that the question of which side represented the "real TMC" would ultimately be settled in court.

What had Abhishek Banerjee argued?

In his letter to the Speaker, Abhishek Banerjee made a detailed constitutional argument. He said the TMC was one single, indivisible party, and that no group of members could simply decide among themselves to break off and claim independent recognition inside the House.
He cited a 2023 Supreme Court Constitution Bench judgment on the Maharashtra political crisis. That ruling held that it is the political party, not the legislature party, that appoints the Whip and the Leader in the House. He argued that no breakaway group could appoint its own Whip or Leader without the political party's authority behind it.

What he said upon merger claims?

On the merger claim specifically, he said the law sets two conditions that must both be met. The one is the political party itself must merge, and second things is at least two-thirds of the legislature party must switch. He said the rebels appeared to believe only one condition needed to be satisfied, which he called flatly incorrect. Even if two-thirds had switched, he said, no merger of the political party had taken place.
He warned that any member who repudiated the authority of the party's Leader and Whip, or functioned independently of the party, risked disqualification under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution. The TMC, he said, reserved its right to initiate such proceedings.

The larger picture?

Sunday's meeting with the Speaker made the Lok Sabha split official. Mamata Banerjee had already lost her grip on the Bengal Legislature Party, where roughly 60 of the party's 80 MLAs had broken ranks, seized control of the legislature wing, and elected Ritabrata Banerjee as their leader.