Rebel TMC MPs Will Support the NDA and Join the Nationalist Citizen Party

As the revolt within the TMC grows stronger, the rebels in TMC would be seen joining a new political party and backing the NDA at the center that is headed by the BJP. The statement came after the rebel legislators met with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and demanded special seating arrangement in the lower house of parliament.

The rebels in TMC need an identity in parliament.

After the meeting, renegade TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar told reporters that 20 MPs from the party had met with the Speaker and requested a separate seat.

“We, the twenty AITC-elected MPs, met with the Speaker and sent a letter asking to be allowed to sit apart; these twenty MPs make up more over two-thirds of our entire number. The Nationalist Citizens Party is combining with us. We will continue to work for the country and cooperate with the NDA under the Prime Minister’s direction,” she told reporters.

Dastidar asserted earlier in the day that the dissident group was getting ready to apply for recognition as a distinct parliamentary group and had the backing of 22 Lok Sabha MPs.

Following a meeting with Union Minister Bhupender Yadav, the dissident faction reorganized at the Speaker’s home in New Delhi just hours before the most recent political event.

After that, TMC’s leader Abhishek Banerjee wrote a letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker asking him not to consider the TMC as a fragmented entity but as a unified political party and not give facilities and recognition to any other faction.

The meetings were viewed by many as an indication that the dissident MPs would ask the Parliament to recognize them as the “genuine” TMC.

After talks with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Union Minister Bhupender Yadav on Saturday, Bandyopadhyay, who is considered a confidante of former chief minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee, assured his support to the dissident faction.

It should be noted that according to Bandyopadhyay, he had joined the ranks of the dissidents after some MLA and MPs. According to a PTI report, West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and the former Union Minister are scheduled to meet shortly.

A significant number of MPs have openly separated themselves from the party leadership and expressed support for the NDA government at the center throughout the past week. The dissident MPs may find it easier to negotiate the legal and technical obstacles of creating their own parliamentary group if they combine with the NCPI.