New Delhi, June 15 (PTI) Rebel Trinamool Congress MP Arup Chakraborty on Monday said the breakaway faction is trying to “rectify” the party, and would fight for the control of its election symbol, even as the Mamata Banerjee-led outfit termed the move illegal under the anti-defection law.
On Sunday, 20 rebel Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and announced that they were merging with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), a Tripura-based registered unrecognised political party.
“We have not left TMC; we’re in TMC and trying to rectify the party. Why did it get damaged, that is not being discussed. We will fight for the party symbol; we have 20 members, why should we not fight for the symbol,” Chakraborty told PTI Videos.
“A new game has started… ‘Khela Hobe’,” he added, claiming that the move would bring development and employment to West Bengal.
Attacking the TMC chief and former Bengal chief minister, Chakraborty said, “Mamata Banerjee is scared; she can’t even call a meeting of the party. She could not even hold a meeting in her constituency before the election.” Chakraborty also said that Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Sudip Bandyopadhyay were the “leaders” of their group.
TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose, meanwhile, said that the 10th Schedule of the Constitution, popularly referred to as the anti-defection law, is clear that a ‘political party’ has to merge, and not just its MPs in Parliament.
In a post on X, Ghose said, “Massive false information is being circulated on the 2/3rds majority and anti-defection law. The 10th Schedule and the Supreme Court have made it amply clear.
“It is the political party outside Parliament (not the party representatives sitting inside Parliament) which must first split or merge, and then after this condition, the people inside do not attract the anti-defection law if 2/3rds choose to break away.” Veteran TMC MP Saugata Roy told PTI Videos, “Now it is clear that the AITC is the party with Mamata Banerjee as chairman. The symbol is two flowers, whose goal is to defeat the BJP.
“Twenty MPs elected on TMC symbol decided to betray their voters by joining an obscure party, some National(ist) Citizens Party of India, illegally, declaring their support for the NDA under Modi.” “They obviously did this to avoid the provisions of Schedule 10(4) of the Constitution. People are watching this news,” he said.
During their meeting with Birla on Sunday, the rebel MPs also sought a separate seating arrangement in Parliament, even as TMC parliamentary party leader Abhishek Banerjee urged the Speaker not to accord any recognition to the breakaway faction.
Six-time MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay, who joined the rebel group on Sunday, said the faction would fight in court to be recognised as the real TMC, and stake claim to its poll symbol.
The NCPI is a Tripura-based registered unrecognised party that does not enjoy any significant political presence.
It contested three seats in the 2023 Tripura polls, with its candidates finishing either behind NOTA or securing only a few votes more.
The battle for control of the TMC is being fought simultaneously in Parliament and the West Bengal Assembly.
Recently, 64 of the party’s 80 MLAs broke away and secured recognition as a separate legislative formation, with Ritabrata Banerjee as the leader of opposition.
The Mamata Banerjee-led party has challenged the move in the Calcutta High Court.