• Source:JND

TMC Crisis: Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Friday met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla in New Delhi, seeking the disqualification of 20 rebel MPs amid a split in the party. He arrived in the national capital earlier in the day, accompanied by party MP Derek O'Brien. The key meeting with Birla marked a high-stakes legal and political challenge against a faction of rebel MPs. A few days ago, 20 TMC MPs declared a merger with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) after calling on the Speaker.

Submitted 20 Disqualification Pleas: Abhishek Banerjee

After meeting the Lok Sabha Speaker, Abhishek said,"20 MPs of TMC met the Speaker 3-4 days ago and claimed to form their separate group. As per the media, they have claimed to be treated as a separate group. Then, 2-4 of them claimed a few hours later to have merged with NCPI, which none of us had heard of. I, as the Leader of Lok Sabha of TMC, have submitted 20 different disqualification petitions. The 10th Schedule is against them, against these people who claim to have formed a separate group. If they have even a little integrity, they should resign from their post."

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This development follows a widening internal crisis for the TMC, which is currently grappling with a dual rebellion: 58 MLAs in West Bengal, led by expelled leader Ritabrata Banerjee, and the 20 Lok Sabha MPs led by Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar.

Earlier, on June 10, Abhishek wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla regarding reports that certain party MPs may seek recognition as a "separate group or faction". In his communication, he categorically stated that the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) is a "single, indivisible political party" and that the legislative party in the Lok Sabha exists only as an "emanation of" the parent political party.

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Addressing Speaker Om Birla, the TMC MP made three specific requests that the submission be formally "placed on record" to contests the legitimacy of any competing "group" or "faction", to recognise the AITC as a single entity represented solely through its authorised Leader and Whip, and to decline any status to "purported separate groups" and to grant the AITC an opportunity to be heard before any decision is made regarding such communications.

(With Agencies Inputs)


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