The Collapse of TMC Deepens as MPs Back NDA, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar Leads Revolt

The crisis within Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) looks set to continue as the situation turns bleaker for the former West Bengal Chief Minister.

After a split in the party’s assembly wing earlier this month, now around 20 MPs led by Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar look set to support the ruling NDA dispensation in the Parliament.

Ghosh Dastidar, who resigned from all positions within the TMC last month, announced that she had submitted a letter signed by around 20 MP’s to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, seeking separate seating arrangements as a separate bloc in the Parliament.

The rebels would require the support of at least 19 of the TMC’s 28 MPs in the Lok Sabha to not run afoul of the anti defection law, a bar which they seem to have cleared.

TMC’s Lok Sabha Split

According to a report by The Hindustan Times, the rebel TMC group met at the house of Union Minister and BJP’s Bengal observer Bhupendra Yadav. Later that day they again met at the residence of Birbhum MP Shatabdi Roy.

The report also identified West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari as being present at the meetings.

“In the first meeting, the CM quipped that all of you are senior MPs but you have been badly treated by the TMC brass,” one of the MPs said to HT.

The rebellion in the TMC’s parliament ranks has not been limited to the Lok Sabha. On Monday, senior TMC leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy resigned from the upper house, signaling that the split has spilled onto every section of the party.

“Sar Katega, Jhukega Nai” says Kakoli Ghosh

The leader of the rebellion in the party’s Lok Sabha unit, Ghosh Dastidar, was accused of disloyalty towards Mamata Banerjee, accusations she firmly dismissed.

“I have been with Mamata Banerjee for 40 years. She has been my guide, my mentor and my leader, and I have been with her even in the days when she was not in power. I have contested in five elections and lost before 2009. So it is useless to say that just because she is not in power in West Bengal, I have left. It is not that. I was with her when she was not in power. But at that time, there was a policy which was a pro-people agenda for the poor people of the state of West Bengal... But in the last 3-4 years, the work has been suboptimal,” Kakoli Ghosh told ANI.

The Barasat MP also struck a defiant tone towards her critics denying that her current actions constitute opportunism.

"Mera sar katega lekin jhukega nahi... Maine bohot seh liya, I did not come here after Mamata Banerjee became chief minister in 2011; I have been fighting here for 40 years. And as I said, the words of such people have absolutely no effect on me...," she added.