Speaker To Hear Both TMC Sides Before Taking A Call On Recognition

New Delhi: With letters flying from both sides of Trinamool Congress MPs claiming rights and recognition in the Lok Sabha, Speaker Om Birla has decided to hear the defected TMC MPs as well as the faction led by Mamata Banerjee before taking a call on the issue of recognizing the side in the lower house.

Mr Birla is also seeking legal opinion from the Union Law Ministry on the defected leaders' demand to be recognised as a separate group after a proposed merger with the little-known Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI). Any decision on the group's demand will be taken before the Monsoon Session of Parliament, which usually commences in the third week of July.

Mr Birla had on Monday called TMC leader Mr Abhishek Banerjee for a meeting at a two-hour notice when he was still being questioned by the ED in Kolkata. It is learnt that Mr Banerjee got an email from the Speaker's office at around 2 pm on Monday, asking him to meet Birla at 4 pm. Soon after, the Speaker's office called party MP Mr Kirti Azad and told him about the email. Mr Azad informed the Speaker's office that Banerjee was "committed to cooperating with all investigative agencies" and was cooperating with the investigation at the ED office in CGO complex in Kolkata, sources said. Later in the day, Mr Azad also met the Speaker to inform him about the email. The sources added that Mr Banerjee returned after questioning only around midnight.

Former Secretary General of the Lok Sabha and constitutional expert Mr P.D.T. Achary cited paragraph 4 of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution to underline that only a political party can merge with another political party, not MPs or MLAs. He said that if the leadership of a political party decides to merge with another political party, its MLAs and MPs have to agree on the merger "but MPs or the MLAs alone cannot merge with another political party... This is the Constitutional provision."

A former Election Commission officer, who dealt with political parties in the poll authority, described the current plan of the TMC rebels to merge with the NCPI as an "innovation" that has no mention in either the anti-defection law or the Representation of the People Act.

Interestingly, TMC MLA and the current Leader of Opposition in West Bengal assembly Mr Ritabrata Banerjee had already made it clear that the MLAs will not join MPs in merging with any other party and will continue to function as TMC members.

TMC MP In Rajya Sabha Mrs Sagarika Ghosh also pointed out to this clause of Tenth Schedule (Anti-Defection Law) of the Constitution of India saying, “An MP or MLA will lose their seat or be disqualified under anti-defection law unless their original political party merges with another party; and they either join the new/merged party, or refuse to join the original merger. Crucial condition is that the original party has to merge with another party or they have to merge with another party. (There is) No legal provision of a ‘separate group’ inside Parliament or inside the assembly while sitting on a MP/ MLA seat previously won on the original party’s name and symbol. The law is clear. No “Separate Group” inside the House on the same symbol is legal. Merge with a new party or be disqualified. Else your membership of the House -- Parliament or Assembly -- is illegal.”

Meanwhile, the defected TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said that the rebel MPs have no connection with the dissident TMC MLAs, who have formed a separate group in the West Bengal Assembly, recognised by Speaker Rathindra Bose. Saugata Roy, the TMC leader still with Mamata Banerjee, called the breakaway faction a team of traitors, claiming that the defected MPs were working at the behest of the BJP-led NDA.

On the relations with the rebel TMC MLAs in Bengal, Dastidar said the dissident MPs have no connection with the state legislators. "We have no connection with them. They are a separate group; their issues and agenda are different," she said.