Overview
- TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and on Friday submitted 20 separate disqualification petitions against the group of 20 rebel MPs who say they merged with the NCPI.
- The TMC contends under the Tenth Schedule that members who voluntarily give up party membership must be disqualified and that the merger exemption applies only when two‑thirds of an entire political party, not just its legislature group, merges.
- Speaker Om Birla has heard TMC’s case and will call the rebel MPs to present their position before deciding whether to recognise the group or accept the disqualification petitions.
- If the Speaker accepts the rebels’ claimed merger with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India the move could raise NCPI’s parliamentary weight within the NDA, and if he disqualifies the MPs the result could be by‑elections and a shift in coalition arithmetic.
- Banerjee has alleged inducement or pressure on some defectors and says he has proof, while records show the NCPI is a little‑known party registered in January 2023 with an Election Commission address in Sankrail, Howrah.