Mamata Banerjee’s grip slips as 19 TMC MPs signal shift to NDA

A leaked document circulating in Delhi circles suggests a significant chunk of the Trinamool Congress parliamentary party is ready to break ranks.

The political ground in Kolkata and New Delhi is shifting rapidly. Late Friday, the facade of a unified Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the Lok Sabha cracked open as signature sheets featuring 19 party MPs went viral. The documents, currently under scrutiny in political circles, purportedly detail a formal request to the Lok Sabha Speaker to recognise these rebels as a distinct parliamentary bloc aligned with the BJP-led NDA.

While the authenticity of these specific signatures remains unverified, the emergence of the list provides a tangible face to the rumblings of dissent that have plagued the party since its bruising defeat in the West Bengal assembly elections. The signatories named in the reports include high-profile MPs such as Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Satabdi Roy, and Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia. Sources within the dissident camp are not backing down; one rebel MP confirmed to reporters that the list is genuine and hinted that the final count could climb even higher in the coming days.

The numbers game in Parliament

With a total strength of 28 MPs in the Lok Sabha, the TMC has long been a formidable opposition block. However, the rebel camp’s claim of 19 members is strategically significant. By moving as a group of 19, the dissidents are targeting the two-thirds threshold required under anti-defection laws. If the Speaker accepts this split, the group could technically bypass the legal hurdles that usually follow a high-profile party revolt, effectively allowing them to stake their claim as a separate political entity while supporting the NDA.

This parliamentary move follows an unprecedented crisis in the West Bengal assembly, where 58 of the party’s 80 MLAs openly defied the leadership to back expelled legislator Ritabrata Banerjee as the Leader of the Opposition. That assembly revolt forced Mamata Banerjee to dissolve all party committees, but the strategy appears to have done little to stem the tide. Instead, the dissatisfaction has mutated and traveled from the state capital to the national stage.

Why it matters

The broader implications are clear: the TMC is facing an existential threat that transcends local grievance. What we are witnessing is the dismantling of a party hierarchy from the bottom up. By attempting to form a separate bloc, the rebels are not just challenging Mamata Banerjee’s leadership; they are fundamentally reordering the power equations in the Lok Sabha.

If this group manages to formalize their alignment with the NDA, it would fundamentally weaken the opposition's position in Parliament. For the TMC, the crisis has moved beyond internal house-cleaning and into the realm of a potential structural collapse. As the rebels prepare to make further claims on Monday, the TMC leadership is left with a shrinking window of opportunity to hold its ranks together before the party fractures beyond repair.