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Informist, Monday, Jun. 15, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Indian National Congress Monday severely criticised Union Home Minister Amit Shah for allegedly "masterminding" the defection of 20 members of Parliament of the All India Trinamool Congress and their merger into a little-known party, apparently to muster numbers in the Lok Sabha to get the contentious delimitation bill passed.

 

Congress Rajya Sabha member Jairam Ramesh called Shah "an absolute disgrace to the position once held by Sardar Patel", and described him as a person who has taken Indian democracy "to new lows in a shameless manner".

 

Twenty lawmakers of the Trinamool Congress Monday met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla at his residence here and submitted a letter requesting to sit separately in the House. After the meeting, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, who is apparently leading the rebel group, said they constitute more than two-thirds of the total strength of the Trinamool Congress and are merging with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India.

 

Jairam Ramesh called the step an "illegal breakaway" and "wholly questionable fusion with an unheard of and reportedly unrecognised political outfit" formed just three years ago.

 

"The 'Nationalist Citizens Party of India' could well end up becoming the second largest in the National Democratic Alliance, ahead of even the long-established and long-experienced Telugu Desam Party and Janata Dal (United), who should actually be protesting their downgrade through such underhand tactics and in such a disgusting manner," he said. 

 

He said the "bizarre move" is part of the Union home minister's "strategy to engineer a two-third majority for the NDA" in the Lok Sabha. "Decency, decorum, and devotion to constitutional values and principles remain vulnerable and threatened every day he continues in office," the Congress MP said.

 

The Narendra Modi government had brought the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, which proposed to expand the number of seats in the Lok Sabha to 850 from 543 and delink the delimitation exercise from the 2026 census, at a special sitting of Parliament in April. The bill was defeated by a united Opposition as the BJP failed to garner the two-thirds majority necessary to pass a constitutional amendment. The Bharatiya Janata Party, however, is keen to get the bill passed as it will gain a numerical advantage in the Hindi belt states, where the party is at its strongest.  End

 

Reported by Asim Khan

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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