Trinamool Congress (TMC) general secretary and the party leader in the Lok Sabha, Abhishek Banerjee, met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Friday and said the party was indivisible and that the claim by 20 of TMC’s 28 MPs to function independently was not maintainable.
Banerjee was accompanied by party leaders Mahua Moitra and Kalyan Banerjee, who said that the rebel TMC MPs, led by Kakoli Ghosh, had no locus under the law to claim a split from the party.
Banerjee cited a 2023 Supreme Court judgment, which says that the political party is supreme and legislature party flows from it, and that there is no conception in law of fragmentation of the political party.
Abhishek, the nephew of former West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, urged the Speaker to recognise the TMC in its entirety under the law and not entertain the rebels’ claim that they have now merged with a regional party and will be an independent bloc in the Lok Sabha backing the BJP-led NDA.
The rebels had met Birla earlier this week to press their claim.
