Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, along with TMC MPs Kalyan Banerjee and Mahua Moitra, on Friday met with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and submitted 20 petitions against its 20 rebel MPs, seeking their disqualification.
After the meeting, Banerjee told mediapersons that the rebel MPs, who have claimed to join the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), should be disqualified from the membership of the House.
“…20 MPs of TMC met Speaker 3-4 days ago and claimed to form their separate group. As per the media, they have claimed to be treated as a separate group. Then 2-4 of them claimed a few hours later to have merged with NCPI which none of us heard of…I, as Leader of Lok Sabha of TMC, have submitted 20 different disqualification petitions…The 10th Schedule is against them, against these people who claim to have formed a separate group. If they have even a little integrity, they should resign from their post,” Banerjee said.
Banerjee further claimed that the rule regarding two-thirds of the members merging with another party is applied to the whole party, and not just the legislative party.
“Based on that I, as the leader of Lok Sabha of TMC, have submitted 20 different disqualification petitions against those MPs,” he said.
The latest move by the Mamata Banerjee-led party came after Birla invited the TMC Lok Sabha leader to present his views on the issue before a decision was made on a demand by 20 rebel TMC MPs to recognise them as a separate group after their merger with the NCPI.
“These 20 (rebel MPs) cheated people and disobeyed and disrespected the Constitution. They have sold their conscience, respect and integrity. People of Bengal will never forgive them. Several of them (rebel MPs) have been provided with central security…There is no person in the constituency who is standing with them. They want to protect themselves from ED, CBI. Some of them are getting money and some others are being threatened, I have concrete proof of the same. If any MP finds my words offensive, they should file a case against me; I will prove it before the court of law, whatever I have,” ANI quoted Banerjee as saying.
#WATCH | Delhi: After meeting Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, TMC national general secretary and MP Abhishek Banerjee says, “These 20 (rebel MPs) cheated people and disobeyed and disrespected the Constitution. They have sold their conscience, respect and integrity. People of Bengal… pic.twitter.com/5FJ4L6RjtI
— ANI (@ANI) June 19, 2026
He added, “We absolutely do not have the level-playing field. I am saying this because parties are being broken – not just in Bengal but also in Maharashtra. Shiv Sena was broken into two and other second half is being further broken for their own benefit. They want to change the Constitution at any cost.”