West Bengal political tensions rise over rebel MLAs and election seat sharing

Political friction is intensifying in West Bengal as the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee take distinct stances on upcoming local elections and internal party discipline.

Senior TMC leader Shobhan Deb Chattopadhyay has approached the Supreme Court seeking the disqualification of 10 rebel MLAs under the anti-defection law. The petition targets Speaker Rathindra Bose for failing to act on previous requests. The group of rebel legislators includes Ritabrata Banerjee and former Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim. This marks the second time the matter has been brought to the Supreme Court following a previous observation that such applications should be resolved within three months.

Separately, the West Bengal Congress has rejected proposals for seat-sharing arrangements in the upcoming elections for seven urban local bodies. The party declined potential partnerships with both the TMC-led faction and the Left Front. State Congress President Subhankar Sarkar stated that local elections are not an appropriate platform for such experiments, citing past experiences where administrative influence rendered local contests a mere formality. Meanwhile, the Left Front has also affirmed it will contest the elections independently to assess its own organizational strength.