Amid turmoil in the party, 16 Trinamool Congress MPs, led by Sukhendu Sekhar Ray and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, met with West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari at a BJP minister's residence on Monday.
Reportedly, these MPs have also written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, requesting that they be allotted seats as a separate faction.
The MPs who met Adhikari:
*Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar
*Partha Bhowmick
*Jagadish Basunia
*Mitali Bag
*Dev
*Shatabdi Roy
*Rachna Banerjee
*Sharmila Sarkar
*Kalipada Soren
*Arup Chakraborty
*Asit Mal
*Shatrughan Sinha
*Prasun Banerjee
*Pratima Mondal
*Bapi Haldar
Except for Sekhar Ray, others are Lok Sabha MPs.
If a rebellion breaks out within the Trinamool Congress, the rebel MPs would require a two-thirds majority—meaning at least 20 seats—in the Lok Sabha to avoid disqualification under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.
Earlier in the day, Ray resigned from the Rajya Sabha and quit the party, alleging that the Mamata Banerjee-led government was marred by corruption and atrocities against women.
He also alleged that since he demanded an internal inquiry into the role of police officers in the RG Kar hospital rape-murder case, he had been "increasingly isolated" within the party.
"My fault was that I demanded an internal inquiry against certain police officers because I believed they had a major role in the destruction of evidence. That was the turning point," he told reporters.
Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee attended the INDIA bloc meeting in Delhi that is aimed at reworking a strategy to take on the BJP.
