Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has received 20 separate petitions from Trinamool Congress seeking disqualification of 20 rebel MPs. Party leader Abhishek Banerjee made the appeal after meeting the Speaker on Friday.
The rebel MPs claimed that they had joined the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) and should be recognized as a separate group in the House. Abhishek Banerjee then took this important step by meeting the Speaker.
“These 20 MPs had earlier met the Speaker and presented themselves as a separate party,” Banerjee told reporters. It was later learned that they claimed to have joined a group called NCPI, which no one had heard of before and even the rebels did not know its name.
Banerjee argued that under Article II of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution, the Anti-Defection Act, a member voluntarily resigns from his principal party. So those who claim to join a new party after two years after being elected with a particular party symbol should be stripped of their membership. He demanded a decision on the petitions as soon as possible as the Supreme Court had also ordered such a decision within three months.
Abhishek Banerjee termed the rebel MPs’ demands for separate seating arrangements or appointment of leaders as secondary. He said the rebels can contest future elections on any party ticket if they wish, but before that they have to face the legal consequences of defection. He accused the rebels of violating the constitution, saying they had sold their ideals and honor and the people of Bengal would never forgive them. He also alleged that these MPs who got central protection left the party due to fear of ED and CBI. They have been forced to do this by threatening and inducing millions of rupees. It excludes equal opportunities for all in a democracy. He referred to the attempt to break the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra and accused the central government of misusing the Election Commission, CBI and ED.
Speaker Om Birla invited the Trinamool Lok Sabha leader to express his views before deciding on the rebels’ demand for recognition of a separate group. Earlier, on June 10, Banerjee had written to the Speaker asking not to grant any recognition or facilities to any Trinamool rebel group. In that letter he argued that the constitution and the anti-defection law did not allow for the formation of separate parties within existing political parties. He said that the All India Trinamool Congress should be treated as a single party represented in Parliament only by its authorized leaders and whips. He also referred to the Supreme Court’s Constitution Act judgment in the Maharashtra Political Crisis case, which said that self-defence justification for party dissolution under the 10th Schedule is no longer acceptable. Also, for any valid merger, both the merger and the support of two-thirds of the MLAs or MPs of the political parties must be met. Trinamool MPs Kirti Azad and Sagarika Ghosh submitted the letter at the Speaker’s residence.
A coup started within the Trinamool Congress parliamentary party after the party’s defeat in the West Bengal Assembly elections. The rebel camp claims to have the support of 22 MPs. Rebel MP Kakali Ghosh Dastidar said at the Kolkata airport before leaving for Delhi that two more Lok Sabha members are likely to join them, taking their total to 22. They plan to seek recognition in parliament as a separate parliamentary party. At the same time, a similar fight is going on in the West Bengal Assembly, where 64 of the party’s 80 MLAs have defected to be recognized as a separate assembly and Ritabrata Banerjee has been named Leader of the Opposition. The Mamata Banerjee-led group has already challenged the decision in the Calcutta High Court.
According to sources, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha will soon decide on the 20 Trinamool MPs and the decision may come before the monsoon session of Parliament. The Speaker has already heard arguments from both sides on separate seating arrangements and applications seeking recognition as members of NCPI. The Speaker has already approved the DMK’s request to sit separately from the Bharat Group and the DMK MPs will sit separately in the monsoon session scheduled for the third week of July. Trinamool MPs may face the same action as Sat Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MPs who join the BJP, the party said in a statement on its website.