Days after a rebel bloc of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) decided to merge with the regional Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), Lok Sabha MP Kirti Azad on Tuesday reiterated that the party led by former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is the “real TMC” and termed the move “undemocratic”.
Talking to the media, Azad said, “The real TMC is led by Didi, and everyone knows Didi is Mamata Banerjee”. He described the breakaway MPs as a “party of traitors” and alleged that they were engaged in “infighting” over ministerial posts.
Questioning the rebel group’s merger with the NCPI, Azad said, the party has no representation in Parliament. “Yet all of them are joining that party,” he said, adding that it is a “registered but unrecognised” political party with the Election Commission of India and has “no real standing or recognition”.
He compared the move to joining a company in the corporate affairs system and said that the development was “not democratic”.
Late Sunday evening, TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla urging him not to accord recognition to any separate faction of the party. Soon after, the rebel group of 20 MPs led by Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar met the Speaker and announced their merger with the NCPI, also seeking a separate seating arrangement in the House.
