TMC’s Abhishek Banerjee seeks disqualification of 20 rebel Lok Sabha MPs

Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee on Friday submitted petitions to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla demanding that 20 rebel MPs be disqualified on the grounds of leaving the party.

He said that the 10th Schedule of the Constitution was clear that if a member voluntarily gives up the party’s membership, they are to be disqualified as MPs.

“If the members have been elected on a symbol and are claiming after two years that they are joining a new party, their membership should go immediately,” he told reporters after meeting Birla.

The TMC is facing rebellions and internal divisions since losing the Assembly elections in May.

TMC leader Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar on Sunday said that 20 of the party’s 28 Lok Sabha MPs will merge with the Tripura-based Nationalist Citizens Party and back the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance in the Lower House of Parliament.

The speaker had asked Abhishek Banerjee, the leader of the TMC legislature party in the Lok Sabha, to present his case against the Dastidar-led faction’s decision.

On Friday, Abhishek Banerjee, citing the 10th Schedule, said that the merger can be considered valid only if two-thirds of a political party, not the legislature party, merges into another party.

“If they [rebels] have any integrity, they should resign [as MPs],” he stated. “...Let elections...

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