Trinamool Congress (TMC) general secretary and the party leader in the Lok Sabha, Abhishek Banerjee, met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Friday and stated that the party is indivisible. He argued that the claim by 20 of TMC’s 28 MPs to function independently is not maintainable under the law.
Delegation Accompanies Banerjee
Banerjee was accompanied by party leaders Mahua Moitra and Kalyan Banerjee. Kalyan Banerjee emphasized that the rebel TMC MPs, led by Kakoli Ghosh, had no legal standing to assert a split from the party. He noted that the party remains unified and that the rebels' actions lack legal basis.
Supreme Court Judgment Cited
Banerjee referenced a 2023 Supreme Court judgment, which establishes that the political party is supreme and the legislature party derives from it. He argued that there is no legal concept of fragmentation within a political party. Therefore, the rebels cannot claim to have formed an independent bloc.
Appeal to the Speaker
Abhishek, the nephew of former West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, urged Speaker Om Birla to recognize the TMC in its entirety under the law. He requested that the Speaker not entertain the rebels' claim that they have merged with a regional party and will function as an independent bloc in the Lok Sabha, backing the BJP-led NDA.
Rebels' Previous Meeting
The rebel MPs had met Birla earlier this week to press their claim for recognition as a separate group. However, the TMC leadership maintains that such a split is not permissible under constitutional and legal provisions.
