Announcement of merger of group of rebel TMC MPs with NCPI, letter submitted to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla

New Delhi, June 14. Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee suffered a major blow on Sunday evening when the rebel group of 20 MPs, more than two-thirds of the party’s 28 MPs in the Lok Sabha, led by Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, announced their merger with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ally Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI).

After meeting Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, rebel TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh said, ‘We have requested to make separate seating arrangements. We have said that we are merging with the Nationalist Citizens Party.

Under the leadership of PM Modi NDA Will work together with – Kakoli Ghosh

Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said, ‘We 20 MPs elected from AITC met the Speaker and submitted a letter requesting to sit separately. These 20 MPs are more than two-thirds of our total number. We are merging with the Nationalist Citizens Party. Going forward, we will work for the country and work together with NDA under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Internal crisis deepens in Trinamool

This move by the rebel faction of TMC has further deepened the crisis within Trinamool, which has 28 MPs in the Lok Sabha. Also, before the monsoon session of Parliament, the number of opposition in the lower house will also reduce significantly. Sources said that this decision has been taken to avoid legal complications which usually arise when a separate group is formed.

Kirti Azad handed over letter to Lok Sabha Speaker

Earlier in the day, Trinamool leaders Kirti Azad and Sagarika Ghosh met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and handed over a letter from the party’s number two leader and parliamentary party chief Abhishek Banerjee. In the letter, the Speaker was urged not to accept the rebel group because the political party is supreme and not the legislative party.

Urge not to recognize rebel group

It was written in the letter, ‘The existence of the legislative party in the Lok Sabha comes from the political party itself and it is a part of it. No member or group of members can, of his own free will, form a parallel group or faction of the same party and claim independent recognition within the House. Citing a related order of the court, the letter said that the law does not justify the division of a political party into competing groups. Instead, such behavior is viewed as inappropriate.