Anti-Defection Law Invoked as TMC Seeks Ouster of 20 Rebel MPs

By Mahima Katal

New Delhi, June 19: Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader in the Lok Sabha, Abhishek Banerjee, on Friday met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and submitted 20 separate petitions seeking the disqualification of 20 rebel TMC MPs who have claimed to join the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI).

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Banerjee said the MPs had voluntarily given up their membership of the Trinamool Congress and were therefore liable to be disqualified under the anti-defection provisions of the Constitution.

"Twenty MPs approached the Speaker seeking recognition as a separate group. Subsequently, it emerged that they had claimed to join another party, the NCPI—a party that neither the public nor, apparently, even those MPs were familiar with," Banerjee said.

Referring to the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, he asserted that any elected representative who voluntarily relinquishes membership of the party on whose symbol they were elected attracts disqualification.

"If someone is elected on a party symbol and then, after two years, claims to have joined another political party, their membership of the House should cease," he said.

Banerjee further argued that the provision relating to the merger of two-thirds of a party's legislators applies to the political party as a whole and not merely to its legislative wing.

"As the leader of the TMC in the Lok Sabha, I have submitted 20 separate disqualification petitions against these MPs," he said.

The development comes after Speaker Om Birla invited Banerjee to present the party's position before taking a decision on the request made by the rebel MPs seeking recognition as a separate group following their claimed merger with the NCPI.

Last week, Banerjee had also written to the Speaker urging him not to grant any recognition, status, or facilities to any faction claiming to be a separate group within the All India Trinamool Congress. He maintained that neither the Constitution nor the anti-defection law permits the formation of a separate faction within an existing political party.