Abhishek Banerjee tells Speaker rebel MPs cannot claim separate identity

Kolkata: AITC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Sunday wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, asserting that the Trinamool Congress is "a single, indivisible political party" and arguing that dissident MPs cannot form a separate group within Parliament while retaining their seats on the party symbol.

In the letter, Banerjee said the legislative party in the Lok Sabha derives its existence from the political party and that there can be only one recognised leader and one whip authorised by the party.

"The AITC is a single, indivisible political party. The legislative party in the Lok Sabha derives its very existence from, and remains an emanation of, the political party. There is in law only one AITC, one leader of the party in the House, and one Whip," the letter stated.


Citing the Supreme Court's 2023 judgment in the Subhash Desai vs Principal Secretary, Governor of Maharashtra case, Banerjee argued that the anti-defection law does not recognise a "split" as a valid defence following the deletion of Paragraph 3 of the Tenth Schedule through the 91st Constitutional Amendment.

"The law does not recognise the splintering of a political party into competing groups as a permissible event; it treats such conduct through the lens of disqualification," the letter said.

Lok Sabha MP Kirti Azad and Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose later met Birla in New Delhi and submitted the letter on behalf of the party.