Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Abhishek Banerjee met Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla in Delhi on Friday, seeking disqualification of 20 Lok Sabha MPs who are part of the rebel bloc.
“As the leader of the Trinamool Congress Parliamentary Party in the Lok Sabha, I have submitted 20 separate disqualification petitions against these 20 MPs. These petitions have been formally submitted before the Speaker, seeking their immediate disqualification,” said Abhishek Banerjee.
Abhishek cited the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, maintaining that the merger with Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) is invalid as the entire TMC did not support the merger.
“One cannot simultaneously belong to two political parties. If someone elected on one party's symbol later joins another party, their membership should be terminated immediately,” added Abhishek while stating the rebel MPs contested and won on one symbol and should now resign and contest on another symbol if they are unhappy with TMC.
The question now is whether the Lok Sabha speaker will consider Abhishek’s appeal and disqualify the 20 MPs. Despite party leaders leaving the Mamata-Abhishek faction at a rapid pace, they are trying to keep afloat and fight to keep relevance.
There are rumours that former minister and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim who was considered a close aide of Mamata, may deflect to the rebel camp, after meeting Leader of Opposition (LoP) Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha on two occasions. Another former minister Jyotipriya Mullick has resigned from all posts of TMC, citing ill health. Mullick was also seen as a close aide of Mamata, with the former CM praising him publicly for his work.
Troubles further deepen for the Mamata faction of TMC, with 10 rebel MLAs writing to Biddhanagar police commissionerate, asking for an investigation into TMC accounts, stating mismatch of funds. The allegations are that some of the unaccounted amount is through “cut-money” and extortion. “We MLAs have filed a complaint with Biddhanagar police station to investigate where the money is coming from,” said Ritabrata Banerjee suggesting extortion, cut money or unutilised government funds. He also questioned where the money to use chartered flights came from, while hitting out at Abhishek’s usage of chartered flights.
Ritabrata and other MLAs also asked for bank accounts to be frozen and no debit from the account can take place.
A few days ago, Aroop Biswas, the former treasurer of TMC, had written to the bank asking for accounts to be frozen, suggesting misappropriation can take place.
Whether investigators will take action of freezing party accounts after these complaints is not certain. For a party in doldrums, Mamata as party supremo has to take tougher measures to prevent being cornered by those who once were close to her and prove to be the real TMC in letter and spirit.
