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Informist, Friday, Jun. 19, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The All India Trinamool Congress submitted petitions to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla Friday, seeking the disqualification of the party's rebel members of Parliament, General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee said after meeting Birla in Parliament House here. Banerjee, leader of the Trinamool Congress parliamentary party, said he moved 20 separate disqualification petitions, one for each defector.

 

Banerjee was accompanied by other lawmakers of the party. He said the delegation submitted multiple judgments of the Supreme Court pertaining to disqualification under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, commonly known as the anti-defection law. "Twenty MPs of Trinamool Congress met the speaker 3-4 days ago and claimed to form their separate group," Banerjee told reporters after the meeting. "They requested the speaker to be treated as a separate group. Then 3-4 of them claimed a few hours later to have merged with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India, which none of us had ever heard of."

 

Terming the move of the rebel MPs "illegal", Banerjee said that under the Tenth Schedule, if an elected member leaves the party on whose symbol he or she had fought the election, it is valid ground for disqualification.

 

Twenty of the 28 Lok Sabha members from the Trinamool Congress broke away and merged with the little-known Tripura-based party a few days ago. The speaker is yet to decide on the validity of their move.

 

"If they are unhappy with the party leadership, as they have claimed per media reports, then they should resign from their post and walk out," Banerjee said. "They are then free to join NCPI or any party. If they have even a little integrity, they should resign and contest a fresh election on NCPI or BJP or whatever party symbol."

 

Banerjee, nephew of party chairperson and former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, argued that the excuse of having two-third majority does not hold because, according to law, this condition is for the party organisation, not just the legislature group.  End

 

Reported by Asim Khan

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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