New Delhi, July 20 (IANS) Between 2009 and 2014, as the Trinamool Congress grew in numbers in the Lok Sabha, its leaders, spurred by supremo Mamata Banerjee, sought prominence in Parliament, including a party office of its own.
For a party that grew from single digits to 19 seats in the 2009 Lok Sabha election and 34 in 2014, the demand could be considered justified. But it chose to link it with the Left Front’s successive decline in numbers in the Lower House of Parliament, especially that of the principal constituent – the Communist Party of India (Marxist) – Mamata’s main political bete noire.
Incidentally, the CPI(M) then had its Parliamentary office on the top floor of the old building, now called Samvidhan Sadan. The Trinamool Parliamentary party was subsequently allotted an office. That office exists, but on Monday, on the first day of the current Monsoon Session of Parliament, the Trinamool leader in Lok Sabha, Abhishek Banerjee, was reportedly allotted a seat behind his former colleague, Sudip Bandopadhyay, as per House rules.
Bandopadhyay, now leader of the earlier little-known, unrepresented National Citizens Party of India (NCPI), currently has 20 members against the Trinamool’s eight. Following a major split in the Trinamool Lok Sabha party, the rebel lawmakers merged their faction with the NCPI and the Speaker recently granted approval of separate seating for this group based on the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution and Parliamentary precedents.
This further realigns the political centre of gravity in favour of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The Trinamool Congress, which won 29 seats in the 2024 general elections, faced internal fractures following setbacks in this year’s West Bengal assembly election. Incidentally, one seat remains vacant after the death of the sitting MP.
Twenty of these MPs, led by prominent figures like Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, broke away to form a distinct legislative bloc. For the breakaway group, staking a claim on the original party name could have invited a long-drawn legal battle over election symbols and party constitution. It thus chose to merge with a political party recognised by the Election Commission, which, however, never did contest any Parliamentary election.
With this, the NCPI overnight became one of the prominent political blocs in the lower house and a key ally of the BJP-led ruling coalition.
Introduced with the 52nd Amendment, the anti-defection law dictates that a legislator faces disqualification when he voluntarily gives up membership of his original party. However, Paragraph 4 of the Tenth Schedule provides a specific exemption for mergers. It states that disqualification does not apply if a member’s original party merges with another party, provided that not less than two-thirds of the members of the legislative party concerned have agreed to such a merger.
Given the Trinamool’s total strength in the current Lok Sabha, the rebel group commanded a solid two-thirds majority of the parent Parliamentary party. Consequently, their merger with the NCPI insulates them from automatic disqualification.
While the Trinamool leadership, including Abhishek Banerjee, has submitted disqualification petitions under the Tenth Schedule, the Lok Sabha Speaker possesses the ultimate authority to recognise Parliamentary groups and seating arrangements.
The political and moral legitimacy of the move may be fiercely contested by the Opposition, but the procedural steps remain aligned to the statutory provisions governing party splits and legislative mergers in India.
Meanwhile, the new number equation in Lok Sabha allows the NDA to solidify its Parliamentary dominance with the eclipse of the parent Trinamool party by the NCPI within Lok Sabha.
–IANS
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