FIR filed against Abhishek Banerjee in Diamond Harbour
The complaint was filed in connection with the alleged attack on the BJP leader in 2018, while Abhishek Banerjee has been named in the FIR.
Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee on Wednesday met Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi at 10 Janpath in New Delhi, a meeting that comes at a politically sensitive moment for the Mamata Banerjee-led party.
The interaction follows a series of developments that have intensified pressure on the Trinamool Congress after its defeat in the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly elections. The party has been hit by high-profile resignations, public criticism from former leaders and reports of growing unrest among a section of its MPs.
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A day earlier, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had met Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi at her residence in the national capital, adding to the flurry of political consultations taking place in Delhi.
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The latest setback for the TMC came on Wednesday when Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev resigned from the party’s primary membership. Explaining her decision, Dev said she did not wish to continue in a situation where she found herself in “two boats”.
“What prompted me to take this decision is a very long story. In politics, I don’t think everything needs to be revealed. I did not want to be in a situation where I was in two boats. That is not the right way to do politics,” she said.
Her resignation came just days after Sukhendu Sekhar Ray quit both the Rajya Sabha and the party. In his resignation letter, Ray blamed the TMC’s electoral defeat on what he described as the consequences of the party’s “15-year anarchical rule” under Mamata Banerjee.
Resignations fuel uncertainty within TMC
The departures have added to speculation about an internal split within the party. Reports suggest that around 20 Lok Sabha MPs have rebelled against the leadership, raising questions about the party’s unity in the aftermath of the Assembly poll setback.
TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar had earlier confirmed to ANI that a group of 20 MPs had approached the Lok Sabha Speaker seeking separate seating arrangements in Parliament.
“We are 20 MPs who have requested the Speaker for separate seating, and we will be working in conjunction of the Central and State Government for the development of West Bengal,” she said.
Merger speculation grows around rebel faction
The rebel camp’s meetings with Union Minister and BJP’s West Bengal election in-charge Bhupender Yadav, along with West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, have further fuelled speculation that the faction could eventually align with the NDA.
Under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, commonly referred to as the anti-defection law, any such move would require the support of at least two-thirds of the party’s MPs to qualify as a merger and avoid disqualification.
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