Trinamool Congress battles internal split, seeks to disqualify 20 MPs

The All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) is confronting a deepening internal split. Two senior leaders, Gautam Deb, mayor of Siliguri, and former food minister Jyotipriya Mallick, quit their party posts, citing health concerns and a changed political environment.

A faction of twenty Lok Sabha MPs claims to have merged with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) and is seeking recognition as a separate parliamentary group. TMC leaders Abhishek Banerjee and Saugata Roy met Speaker Om Birla and submitted twenty individual petitions invoking the anti‑defection law to have the rebels disqualified. The party argues the rebels have not resigned from the TMC ticket and have not met the two‑thirds majority required for a lawful merger.

TMC MLA Kunal Ghosh denounced the rebels as “treachery” and urged any members planning to join the NDA to resign from Parliament before switching allegiance. The rebellion is mirrored in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly, where 58 TMC MLAs have formed a separate faction led by Ritabrata Banerjee. TMC maintains that the party remains a single, indivisible entity and is preparing legal challenges to any attempt at formal recognition of the breakaway groups.