Members of Parliament from the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), led by Kirti Azad and Sagarika Ghose, met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Sunday to submit a formal representation against what they described as an “unconstitutional” attempt to fragment the party within the House.

Following the submission, Azad cited recent judicial observations to support the party’s position. “It is very clear. The Supreme Court constitutional bench has said, as mentioned in Article 4 of the 10th Schedule, there cannot be a split. What happened in Maharashtra is wrong. So, we have come here with an application over the same. We have submitted the application to the Speaker. We are fully confident that Speaker will act as per the rules, as he has done so far,” he said.

Azad added that the party had already sent the representation by mail and also submitted a hard copy at the Speaker’s office. “We have given an application to the (Lok Sabha) Speaker. We had already sent it to him through mail beforehand. We had gone to him to give him the hard copy. He wasn’t there, so we got the receiving by his office. The separate group being formed has no provision in the Constitution. Maharashtra’s case is sub-judice in the Court for the last 5 years. Justice delayed is justice denied. We trust the Speaker, that he will give a fair decision as per the Constitution…No separate group can be formed…Mamata Banerjee is the party. The party is not formed by just 20 MPs or 60 MLAs. It is formed by the workers from the grassroots, not just these people. Mamata Banerjee made this party stand,” Azad told ANI.

Sagarika Ghose reiterated that the TMC remains an “indivisible” political entity. “We have given a letter (to Lok Sabha Speaker) that TMC is an indivisible party. You cannot form a separate group within the Lok Sabha. This is against the Constitution…We have given the letter to those who want to break the TMC and want to form a separate group within the Lok Sabha – this is against the Constitution. The Constitution does not allow this. This is against law. This reflects your moral weakness that when the party loses you abandon that party, that leader, that symbol on which you won,” she told ANI.

Ghose further accused the defectors of participating in a larger pattern involving the use of “money and muscle power” to undermine opposition parties. “It is shameful that leaders of the All India Trinamool Congress, who won elections under the party’s banner with Mamata Banerjee’s face on posters, are now leaving the party after its defeat. Where are your principles, your ideology? You spent campaigns criticising the BJP, and now going after them for power. BJP has used money and muscle power to break parties, but the real disgrace is that senior TMC leaders, even those elected many times, surrendered their values to join BJP. Everything is under public scrutiny. They watch, they remember, and they will teach you a lesson,” she said in a self-made video.

Earlier on Sunday, Ghose condemned the rebel group, stating there is no legal provision under the anti-defection law for a “separate group” to operate inside the House while retaining seats won on a party’s symbol.

In a post on X, Ghose explained that an MP or MLA can only avoid disqualification in the event of a formal merger between political parties and under specific conditions. “An MP or MLA will lose their seat or be disqualified under the anti-defection law unless their original political party merges with another party; and they either: Join the new/merged party, or Refuse to join the original merger. No legal provision of a ‘separate group’ inside Parliament or inside the assembly while sitting on an MP/ MLA seat previously won on the original party’s name and symbol. The Law is clear. No ‘separate group’ inside the House on the same symbol is legal. Merge with a new party or be disqualified,” she stated. “Else your membership of the House – parliament or assembly – is illegal,” she added.

This development comes amid rising internal tensions within the TMC, with reports that approximately 20 MPs support demands for separate recognition and seating arrangements within the Lok Sabha, indicating growing divisions within the party’s parliamentary wing. The list of MPs includes Bapi Haldar, Dr. Sharmila Sarkar, Prasun Bandyopadhyay, Jagadish Barma Basunia, Asit Kumar Mal, Arup Chakraborty, Rachna Banerjee, Saayoni Ghosh, Khalilur Rahaman, Abu Taher Khan, Yusuf Pathan, Mitali Bag, Mala Roy, Kalipada Soren, Deepak Adhikari, June Malia, and Partha Bhowmick.

The tensions follow the TMC’s underwhelming performance in the recent West Bengal Assembly elections, reportedly worsening the rift between veteran party members and the central leadership under Mamata Banerjee.

This story is written by TNM Bureau with inputs from ANI. The News Mill is a Guwahati-based digital media with focus on content from across Northeast India and beyond. We can be reached through [email protected]