The former West Bengal chief minister delivered the message by telephone on Sunday to a large party gathering at Chopra in Uttar Dinajpur, as her camp sought to rebuild its organisation after a damaging post-election split.
“Many of the MLAs and MPs we helped get elected are traitors; there is no place for them here,” Banerjee said. “As for the MLAs and MPs who left us — if they come back within 15 days, it is fine; otherwise, there will be no place for them here.”
Her ultimatum amounts to a time-limited offer of reconciliation to elected representatives who broke ranks after the West Bengal Assembly election, while signalling that her faction intends to draw a line under defections as it reorganises.
Banerjee told supporters that ordinary workers, rather than senior leaders, were the party’s real strength and asserted that she could rebuild the organisation she founded in 1998. She also said her faction would return to power, seeking to rally cadres after its Assembly election defeat.
The gathering in Chopra was one of the Mamata-led camp’s most prominent organisational displays in north Bengal since the election. Kalyan Banerjee addressed the meeting, while Itahar MLA Mosharraf Hussain was among the leaders present.
The appeal comes amid unresolved disputes over the political and parliamentary status of defectors. Twenty rebel TMC MPs who aligned themselves with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India, or NCPI, are facing petitions seeking their disqualification from the Lok Sabha under the anti-defection law.
TMC national general secretary and Lok Sabha leader Abhishek Banerjee submitted separate petitions to Speaker Om Birla in June, arguing that the MPs had voluntarily given up their party membership. The rebel MPs have sought recognition separately and have contested the Mamata faction’s position.
The rupture followed a struggle for control of the organisation after the Assembly polls. A group of legislators rallied behind a rival camp, while the 20 Lok Sabha members moved towards the NCPI and backed the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. Those moves left Banerjee fighting on organisational, electoral-symbol and parliamentary fronts, making the question of returning lawmakers important for her faction.
The Lok Sabha Secretariat has asked the 20 MPs to submit responses to the disqualification petitions by October 8 after granting them additional time. Their status therefore remains unresolved, with parliamentary records continuing to be central to the dispute.
A parallel contest over the TMC name and its flowers-and-grass election symbol is before the Election Commission. The Supreme Court last month directed the commission to decide the factional dispute within three months after allowing the rival sides four weeks to complete their pleadings.
Pending that decision, the Election Commission froze the established TMC name and symbol and assigned temporary identities for electoral purposes to competing camps. Banerjee has challenged the interim action before the Supreme Court.
Against that backdrop, the 15-day offer carries organisational significance beyond the Uttar Dinajpur gathering. It gives defectors a defined window to re-enter Banerjee’s camp while the Election Commission considers competing claims over the party organisation and symbol and parliamentary proceedings continue against rebel MPs.
Banerjee also used her address to attack the Election Commission, alleging that the Bharatiya Janata Party would remain in power as long as Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar was in charge. The allegation was political and she did not provide evidence at the meeting to substantiate it.
She linked the effort to strengthen her faction with the wider opposition INDIA alliance, arguing that the grouping could not be strong without the Trinamool Congress and urging supporters who wanted to fight the BJP to reinforce her party.
