Kolkata, June 14 (IANS) Amid growing rebellion among Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha members, the party’s National General Secretary and Lok Sabha member, Abhishek Banerjee, has written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, urging him not to recognise any separate block within the Trinamool Congress Parliamentary Party in the Lower House, arguing that the Trinamool Congress is a single and unified political entity.
The rebel Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha members, who are now believed to be in a majority, are scheduled to meet the Lok Sabha Speaker on Monday and seek recognition for a separate block within the party’s Parliamentary Party in the Lok Sabha.
Ahead of that move, Abhishek Banerjee sent the letter to the Speaker. A party insider said that journalist-turned-politician and Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member Sagarika Ghose, along with the party’s Lok Sabha member Kirti Azad, both of whom continue to remain aligned with former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee, delivered the letter to the office of the Lok Sabha Speaker.
Currently, the Trinamool Congress has 27 members in the Lok Sabha. The seat from Basirhat constituency in North 24 Parganas district remains vacant following the demise of Trinamool Congress MP Haji Sk. Nurul Islam in September 2024, just a few months after his election.
As per information available so far, 20 Lok Sabha members of the party have already turned rebel. However, four-time Lok Sabha member and leader of the rebel faction, Dr Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, claimed earlier in the day that the number had already reached 22. She, however, did not disclose their names.
Incidentally, on Sunday, when Sagarika Ghose and Kirti Azad went to the Lok Sabha Speaker’s residence at 20, Akbar Road in New Delhi to deliver the letter from Abhishek Banerjee, the rebel Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha members were holding a meeting at the residence of Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Bhupender Yadav in the national capital.
It is learnt that in his letter, Abhishek Banerjee argued that the Trinamool Congress Parliamentary Party in the Lok Sabha is an integral part of the parent political organisation and that, legally, the Trinamool Congress is one entity.
He further stated that there is only one leader of the party in the Lok Sabha and one Chief Whip. According to him, both hold their respective positions with the approval of the parent political party and its organisational authorities.
Abhishek Banerjee also argued that individual MPs cannot create a parallel block within the same party in the Lok Sabha and seek separate recognition for it.
–IANS
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