By Tirthankar Mitra
The 20 rebel Lok Sabha members of Trinamool Congress, now under NCPI, are having an anxious time as the central BJP leadership has been continuously postponing its decision to admit them in BJP which the rebels are looking for. BJP high command has postponed scheduled meeting with the TMC rebels a number of times. Now indications suggest that they will wait for the Supreme Court order on the appeal made by Uddhav Thackeray to annul the membership of six Lok Sabha members who defected to Shinde camp.
Politicians of divergent ideologies having a meeting is not a happenstance nor leaders of political party walking into a gathering of another political outfit a mere coincidence. Post 20 Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha MPs breaking away from the party and joining Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), the leader of the breakaway group Sudip Bandopadhayaya recently met Suvendu Adhikari, chief minister of the first BJP state government of West Bengal at Nabanna, the state secretariat.
The meeting did not give grist to the rumour mills as it is common knowledge that the breakaway group who left TMC blaming party chief Mamata Banerjee ‘s nephew and heir apparent Abhishek Banerjee’s high handed ways for the poll debacle is weighing an option to join the BJP ranks or remaining close to it. Though Bandopadhayay and 19 other MPs have parted company with TMC and joined NCPI, they are only too aware that association with this obscure outfit is the last thing to ensure their reelection.
For the NCPI is woefully short of organisational and financial muscle. Even through the Lok Sabha polls are scheduled to be held in 2029, the other option for the breakaway group is to join the saffron camp or be in its good books by supporting issues raised by it in Parliament
The meeting between the two leaders, both of whom once belonged to TMC is of political significance. Bandopadhayay called up another dissident Satabdi Roy on his mobile and a conversation followed between the chief minister and the Birbhum MP.
Networking is indeed the need of the hour. For the NCPI is yet to get recognition from Lok Sabha Speaker, Om Birla. and the breakaway faction is in touch with the Speaker.
Meanwhile, TMC’s Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee also met the Speaker seeking disqualification of the 2O MPs. The breakaway group has good reason for alacrity. The need of proximity between the breakaway group MPs and the saffron camp is reciprocal. Increasing the number of its MPs in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha is uppermost in the agenda of the BJP leadership.
Already, three TMC Rajya Sabha MPs namely Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Susmita Deb and Prakash Chik Baraik have resigned from their party and become BJP members of the Upper House. If the switching of their loyalty have drawn intra-party flak, the saffron leadership could not care less.
No longer does the BJP’s national leadership bother that it once sported a tag of “a party with a difference”. Principles can wait as long as sufficient number of MPs are being gathered to muster their support to pass crucial Bills.
On a cue from the Nabanna meeting, the breakaway group of MPs trooped into a NDA’s “Mangal Milan” at the national Capital recently. Their presence cannot be stated to be either an intrusion or unwelcome given the party’s chief whip Dr Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar sharing the front row with Prime Minister Narendra Modi..
The seating arrangement carried a strong political message. It signalled growing importance of the TMC defectors within the NDA amid evolving political equation between the ruling coalition and the breakaway faction.
Clearly the BJP is widening it’s parliamentary coordination. Chalking out strategy was the agenda of the meeting and the saffron leadership did not feel any need to exclude a group of MPs about to join its camp.
Now to focus on the breakaway TMC faction’s need to either join a well organised mainstream outfit or be close to it. With three years to go before their tenure ends, the breakaway group’s members have woken up to the fact that their instructions are being brushed aside by officials as they are no longer representing a mainstream political party.
Post leaving TMC, the dissidents have become “nowhere people”. And the officials will continue to ignore their instructions till they jump into the band wagon of a party in power.
These MPs won in 2024 Lok Sabha polls holding aloft pictures of Mamata Banerjee, Trinamool ‘s Dum Dum MP Sougata Roy recently pointed out. It is no secret that an individual read Banerjee rather than ideology spearheaded TMC poll plank be it taking on a well entrenched Left in 2011 and thereafter upsetting the saffron juggernaut led by prime minister Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah.
The gameplan was successful though repetitive. And TMC lost the poll battle as in 2026 when it did not click. Yet a subsequent event was a pointer that TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee ‘s charisma has neither died nor faded away. The rally near Birla Planetarium on July 21 marking the Martyr’s Day organised by the faction owing allegiance to her drew the largest crowd.
It hardly mattered to the long line of activists making their way to the rally site that some of the ministers of the erstwhile TMC government and de facto second in command in the party, Abhishek Banerjee being riddled with corruption charges. The image of party supremo Mamata Banerjee remains unblemished which is of prime importance to these rallyists.
Only Mamata Banerjee’s image and presence matter to these diehard Trinamool activists. Incidentally the rally of the breakaway faction of TMC MLAs led by Ritabrata Banerjee recorded poor footfall though the podium was filled with leaders. Those who have joined NCPI observed the Martyrs’ Day at Raj Ghat in the national Capital. Apart from the leaders, there were hardly much attendance.
As for the 2026 assembly poll results, 18 constituencies were lost or won by a razor thin margin of 5000 votes. In 20 constituencies the margin varied between 5000 to 10,000 votes. These constituencies could have gone either way. Apparently, the 20 dissident MPs have chosen to overlook the fact that the response of the people and slim poll margins which are a pointer that Mamata Banerjee is yet to be considered a spent force.
Perhaps the sign of continuing political relevance of their erstwhile supremo is gnawing at the back of the dissident MPs minds. Having parted company with her, these dissidents are seeking a “dependable political shelter”.
To them being close to the BJP or a part of it when the polls come calling three years hence is a far better insurance for electoral success than being part of NCPI. They had joined it with a “any port in storm” mindset.
The 20 rebel TMC Lok Sabha members, now under NCPI will like to stand again with support n from BJP in 2029 Lok Sabha polls but even the rebel members know that BJP may not field many of them even if they are taken into BJP fold in Lok Sabha. These members without their m own political base are now solely depending on BJP goodwill to them. It is a pathetic political situation for the 20 TMC rebel Lok Sabha MPs. (IPA Service)
