On Sunday, the rebels met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla for a separate seating arrangement in the House, in New Delhi (Handout)
“The discussions are going on. There is no change. The earlier arrangement would continue,” said Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, the face of the rebel MPs. According to two people familiar with the matter, Dastidar will be chief whip of the NCPI, a post she held for sometime in the TMC before being replaced by Kalyan Banerjee.
Veteran MP Sudip Bandopadhyay, who was the TMC’s floor leader in the Lower House before fellow lawmaker Abhishek Banerjee succeeded him in August last year will be the new floor leader of the NCPI, and Shatabdi Roy will be nominated as the deputy leader, the two people added, asking not to be named.
Also Read | Letter would be out if they had 20: Mahua Moitra challenges claim by TMC rebels
The merger of the defectors from the TMC with the NCPI, and their decision to support the NDA has boosted the latter, taking its strength from 294 to 314 in the Lok Sabha –– still 46 short to secure the magical two-thirds majority in the Lower House.
In the Upper House, the ruling dispensation can reach 155 seats, just 8 seats short of the two-thirds majority, after the next round of biennial and by-elections.
Opposition lawmakers continued to criticise the defection of the lawmakers.
RJD leader Manoj Kumar Jha said, “Had you even heard the name of this party before yesterday? Did anyone in the country — other than the very people who created it? This is a dismal state of affairs for our democracy. If these tactics become the norm, then what becomes of democracy?… A ‘non-entity’ party, one that had secured a mere 800 votes across two assembly elections, suddenly acquired 20 Members of Parliament overnight… Indian democracy has been reduced to such a farcical state that the world’s perception of us has drastically changed.”
On Sunday, the rebels met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, minutes after Mamata Banerjee loyalists, MPs Kirti Azad and Sagarika Ghose, met the Speaker and handed over a letter from TMC’s Lok Sabha floor leader Abhishek Banerjee. The letter said that “split is no longer available under the Tenth Schedule” and TMC is “a single, indivisible political party”.
Analysts said that the merger with the NCPI will ensure the defectors do not attract the provisions of the anti defection law as detailed in the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.
By keeping them out, the BJP too may have addressed the concerns of some of its local workers in West Bengal who were against the lawmakers joining the BJP.
In the state assembly, at least 59 legislators from the TMC have elected their own leader of the Opposition, going against the choice of Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee. Whether they too exit the party, or stake claim to being the real TMC remains to be seen.
