Ahead of NDA meet, AITC leader Abhishek Banerjee seeks swift action on 20 TMC MP defections

Kolkata: A day ahead when NCPI is scheduled to participate in NDA's meeting tomorrow, AITC leader of Lok Sabha Abhishek Banerjee on Monday wrote a letter to Speaker Om Birla for “expeditious disposal of disqualification petitions against 20 MPs” elected with AITC ticket and now under NCPI banner.

“I write with reference to the disqualification petitions filed on June 19, 2026 under Paragraph 6 of the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution of India, read with Rule 6 of the Members of Lok Sabha (Disqualification on Ground of Defection) Rules, 1985, seeking a declaration that 20 Members of Parliament elected on the symbol of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) have incurred disqualification on the ground of defection,” Banerjee, wrote in a letter to Birla.

He said that the “petitions were accompanied by a detailed representation setting out the factual and legal basis for the disqualification of these Members, who have aligned themselves with the so-called NCPI- an unrecognized political formation that has no representation or recognized status in either Parliament or any State Legislature in the country.”


“More than five weeks have elapsed since the filing of the petitions. To date, no notices have been issued, no hearings have been scheduled and no procedural directions appear to have been passed. Such continued inaction is a matter of grave concern,” he wrote.

“An unduly prolonged pendency of disqualification proceedings frustrates the constitutional objective of the Tenth Schedule, permits the continuance of an uncertainty that the Constitution seeks to avoid, and risks rendering the safeguards embodied in the anti-defection law,” Abhishek wrote in the letter.

“The urgency of the matter has been further accentuated by the decision of the Hon'ble Minister of Parliamentary Affairs to invite the Members against whom the disqualification petitions are pending, as a separate group, to the All-Party Meeting held on 19 July 2026,” Abhishek wrote.

He requested that the petitions be “taken up for hearing on an urgent basis.”

“As each petition concerns the disqualification of an individual Member and requires an independent determination on the facts and applicable law, I further request that each of the twenty petitions be heard and decided separately, after affording all parties concerned, together with their respective legal representatives, a full and effective opportunity of being heard, consistent with the principles of natural justice,” Abhishek added.

He urged the Speaker that “the proceedings be concluded and appropriate orders be passed with all reasonable expedition, in discharge of the constitutional responsibility entrusted to the Hon'ble Speaker under Paragraph 6 of the Tenth Schedule.”

Meanwhile, a meeting is likely to be held between the NCPI MPs, who are part of the NDA now, and WB CM Adhikari tomorrow.

“We have received a call from NDA and there is a meeting tomorrow,” Satabdi Roy, a Triinamool MP, who has joined/merged with NCPI said.

Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool MLA and spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, “These MPs, who won with Trinamool tickets have joined BJP or NCPI are “gaddars” (traitors). They have become part of the BJP.”