Abhishek meets speaker, seeks early decision on 20 rebel MPs’ disqualification
Times of India | 28 July 2026
New Delhi/Kolkata: Trinamool national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Monday met Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla and submitted two letters, urging him to expedite a decision on the party’s petitions to disqualify 20 rebel MPs and to revoke recent changes made to the seating arrangements of its parliamentarians.
Banerjee’s move comes just a day before CM Suvendu Adhikari was supposed to travel to Delhi on Tuesday to meet the 20 dissident MPs — who joined the little-known Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) — for the second time in two months. On Monday, NCPI’s floor leader and MP Sudip Bandopadhyay met Adhikari at Nabanna.
It fuelled speculation over the parliamentary bloc’s future, including a possible merger with BJP. The 20 MPs have also been invited to attend NDA’s weekly strategy meeting on Tuesday.
Banerjee met Birla in his chamber for about 20 minutes starting at 11.15 a.m. Sources said the speaker did not provide a definitive timeline regarding action against the rebel MPs.
In his first letter, Banerjee noted that the 20 disqualification petitions — filed on June 19 under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution and the Members of Lok Sabha (Disqualification on Ground of Defection) Rules, 1985 — remained pending for over five weeks without notices being issued, hearings scheduled or procedural directions passed.
He said the petitions pertained to 20 MPs elected on the TMC symbol who subsequently aligned themselves with NCPI, “an unrecognised political formation with no representation in Parliament or any state legislature”.
In a separate letter, Banerjee objected to the Lok Sabha secretariat’s July 18 circular modifying the division and seat numbers of 28 TMC MPs. He highlighted that another circular issued the same day continued to recognise TMC as a single parliamentary party of 28 MPs under his leadership.
“This clearly shows that AITC is recognised as a single block of 28 MPs by your good office,” Banerjee stated, arguing it was improper to alter seating arrangements based on a unilateral request from the rebel group before the speaker decided on the disqualification petitions.
On the scheduled meeting with the CM, Birbhum MP Satabdi Roy said earlier on Monday: “Several of our MPs have questions and require clarifications about certain urgent matters, which they are likely to put before the CM.”
Neither NCPI nor BJP has officially confirmed that a merger is on Tuesday’s agenda. Sharmila Sarkar, an MP from the rebel bloc, declined to comment on the merger reports, saying she had no information beyond the scheduled meeting.
Saayoni, Mitali to speak for NDA in LS on exam bill
Rebel MPs Saayoni Ghosh and Mitali Bag have been selected to speak on behalf of NDA in the Lok Sabha on the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026, NCPI MPs indicated. Tabled for discussion on Monday, the bill aims to curb exam paper leaks and cheating in national competitive and recruitment examinations.