After the defeat in Bengal elections, there is a great battle in TMC, after the MLAs, now it is the turn of the MPs, is this going to happen in Mamata Banerjee’s party? – ..

After the crushing defeat in the West Bengal Assembly elections, the internal discontent within Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s party Trinamool Congress (TMC) has now transformed into a major political earthquake. After the huge defeat of party MLAs in the state assembly, this spark of rebellion has now reached the country’s Parliament i.e. Delhi. There is a strong discussion in the political circles that many dissatisfied TMC MPs are planning to form a separate rebel group in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. These inputs have given sleepless nights to the TMC high command. However, on Sunday, top party leaders did damage control and claimed that due to the country’s stringent anti-defection law, it is practically impossible to carry out any such rebellion in Parliament.

Mathematics of rebellion in Parliament: Will the rebels be able to collect the number of 19 MPs?

Talking about the current Lok Sabha equations, Trinamool Congress has a total of 28 MPs in the lower house. The rebel group will need the overwhelming support of at least two-thirds, or 19 Lok Sabha MPs, to walk away from the party while saving its membership under the anti-defection law. Senior TMC officials argue that even if the rebel group somehow manages to muster this magic figure, they may not be able to gain recognition as an independent group within Parliament. By law they will have to merge with any other existing political party of their own free will. A top TMC leader clarified that there is no provision in the Indian Parliamentary Act to form a new separate group.

Row over Speaker’s role and allegations of diverting attention from ‘INDIA’ alliance meeting

According to reports coming out of political circles, a group of disgruntled MPs have been holding secret meetings for the last several days to garner the support of other colleagues in both the Houses of Parliament. There is also discussion that as soon as the required numerical strength is achieved, this group can approach the Speaker of the Lok Sabha and submit an official application to change the current parliamentary leader of the party. However, the TMC leadership has completely rejected this possibility. Party leaders argue that the decision on who will be the leader of the parliamentary party is taken by the concerned political party and not by the Lok Sabha Speaker. TMC has termed it as a well-planned conspiracy to divert the media’s attention from the opposition unity i.e. the important meeting of the ‘INDIA’ block to be held on Monday.

Assembly model versus dangerous formula of ‘Aam Aadmi Party’ (AAP)

Amidst this fierce internal tussle, two big political examples are being discussed the most within TMC at the moment:

• The first is the ‘Assembly Model’: Where recently, 58 out of 80 TMC MLAs rebelled under the leadership of Ritabrata Banerjee and separated themselves from the party and acquired the status of the main opposition party in the House.

• The second is ‘AAP Model’: In which some Rajya Sabha MPs including Raghav Chadha had allegedly chosen the path of merger with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by taking recourse to the nuances of the anti-defection law. TMC strategists believe that whatever the model, the legal process in both the cases is extremely long and complicated, and since the monsoon session of Parliament is still far away, the leadership has every chance to control the damage.

Mamta and Abhishek Banerjee’s camp in Delhi, efforts to subdue the rebels intensified

Seeing this outcry at the organizational level in West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee and her nephew and party’s National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee have come on full alert mode. Abhishek Banerjee had reached Delhi on Saturday itself, while party supremo Mamata Banerjee had also reached the national capital on Sunday on the pretext of attending the meeting of ‘INDIA’ alliance. It is being told that both the leaders will hold a one-to-one meeting with all the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs of their party present in Delhi so that any possible threat of rebellion can be crushed in time.

Serious questions raised on Abhishek Banerjee’s leadership style

The recent statements of Sandipan Saha, deputy leader of rebel TMC MLAs, have added fuel to the fire. Saha has openly claimed that the same script which was played inside the Bengal Assembly a few days ago is now being written inside the Parliament also. After the shameful defeat in the assembly elections, many senior and powerful leaders of Trinamool Congress have started openly criticizing Abhishek Banerjee’s working style and his decisions, due to which the party seems to be on the verge of being torn apart. At present, the biggest challenge for TMC, which has 28 MPs in the Lok Sabha and 13 in the Rajya Sabha, is to save its clan from disintegrating.