TMC mutiny in LS: Rebels claim 20 of 28 MPs now support NDA

Kolkata: The relentless implosion of Trinamool Congress continued on Monday with four-time MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar writing a letter "with 19 other MPs' signatures" to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla, saying they would like to be considered as a separate bloc of MPs that would support the NDA.The letter was submitted a little before 1 pm, following which 14 MPs gathered at Union minister Bhupendra Yadav's residence for a lunch where Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari, too, dropped in and spoke with them. "We will not join BJP. We will support NDA," Ghosh Dastidar said.Trinamool now has 28 MPs in Lok Sabha and the rebel bloc needs to have 19 MPs to cross the two-thirds mark that will keep it on the right side of the anti-defection law. Trinamool has seen six defections in its 28 years — from 2001 (Ajit Panja) to 2021 (Suvendu Adhikari) — but never any as crippling as the current crisis. A two-thirds split in Lok Sabha can potentially give the rebels a claim on the party name and its symbol.Monday's developments came after several days of calls and "secret meetings" and occurred when Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee and her nephew, Abhishek, were themselves in Delhi. Their last-ditch attempt to prevent a two-to-one split of the party in Lok Sabha, however, looked like having failed as only eight MPs — Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Saugata Roy, Kalyan Banerjee, Mala Roy, Mahua Moitra, Kirti Azad and Saayoni Ghosh (besides Abhishek) — seemed to be in the Mamata camp; even in this group, two were being "considered fence-sitters", who could switch any moment.Barasat MP Ghosh Dastidar, the first to sound discordant after the May 4 assembly poll result, wrote to Birla in her capacity as "Trinamool chief whip", a post from which she was removed and replaced by Kalyan Banerjee more than two weeks ago (Ghosh Dastidar maintained she remained the chief whip because the party's decision to remove her was made when Parliament was not in session). Many Trinamool seniors seemed to have accepted that the defection drama was reaching a legal-technical flashpoint and would end up in court.The Mamata-Abhishek camp disputed Ghosh Dastidar's contention, with MP Azad pointing out that she had "voluntarily" resigned from all party posts on May 27.Kirti Azad added that only 13 Lok Sabha MPs attended Thursday's meeting with BJP seniors Yadav and Adhikari along with Sukhendu Sekhar Ray (who resigned as a Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP on Monday morning before the meeting). "Where are the 20 MPs? Where is the letter they signed?" Azad asked."Eighteen MPs signed the letter physically; two signed it online," Ghosh Dastidar replied. Another rebel MP, Sharmila Sarkar, too, insisted 20 MPs were there.CM Adhikari again met the rebel MPs at Birbhum MP Satabdi Roy's Delhi home in the evening. Eight other Trinamool MPs — Khalilur Rehman, Sharmila Sarkar, Abu Taher Khan, Bapi Haldar, Jagadish Basunia, June Malia, Kali Pada Soren and Asit Mal — joined the meeting.Some of the MPs, who "signed" the letter sent to LS speaker Birla, chose to be non-committal. Jaynagar MP Pratima Mandal, believed to be among the two online signatories (the other being Rachana Banerjee), said she was "in Kolkata, not Delhi, right now". "So you can understand which side I am on. I stand with the people of my constituency who have elected me for five years. We were one Trinamool Congress family. But none of the MPs discussed this with us or informed us of the reason for splitting. I took the initiative and tried to speak with many of them but they avoided me," she said.Even those who attended the Delhi meetings dodged questions. Bolpur MP Mal listened to the questions from TOI but then remained silent for a few minutes before the call dropped. Jhargram MP Kalipada Soren disconnected the call after listening to the question asked by TOI.Many rebel MPs, particularly Muslim MPs, have been sceptical about joining the BJP directly. And almost everyone wanted tickets for the 2029 poll as well as central security.Ghosh Dastidar said she wanted to work for the three years left in her tenure (the next LS poll is slated for 2029). "We are accountable to people. We need to complete the pending work. We want to be a part of the NDA also for the sake of national security and the country's progress," she added. "We have only informed the speaker. Let him decide. We will then decide," she said when asked about a possible role for her and other MPs when the proposed delimitation bill would come up for vote.The Trinamool LS rebellion may help the NDA get past the 300-mark; it has 292 seats now, comfortably more than the 272-seat majority mark but short of a two-thirds majority.Loyalist Mahua Moitra called the rebels "traitors". "They won in 2024 on a Trinamool ticket. The mandate was not for the NDA. All the greedy, self-serving traitors with yellow-stained pants can please join the BJP now: resign and contest on a BJP ticket. Let's see what big heroes you are," she said.