Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi and Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Kalyan Banerjee, who was suspended from the Lok Sabha last week, were seen interacting inside the Parliament complex on Thursday over the political ties between the two parties. The interaction happened as Banerjee was protesting against the merger of 20 rebel TMC MPs with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI).
Event Context
Last month, former TMC chief whip Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, deputy leader Shatabdi Ray, and actors Deepak Adhikari and Saayoni Ghosh were among the 20 MPs who left the TMC after the party lost power in West Bengal and joined the Tripura-based NCPI in a boost to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
Inside Priyanka Gandhi and Kalyan Banerjee’s conversation
As Kalyan Banerjee continued his protest over the merger of the rebel MPs with the NCPI, Priyanka Gandhi walked up to him and said that the TMC had earlier welcomed several Congress leaders into the party in West Bengal.
In visuals shared by news agencies PTI and ANI, the Congress leader was heard telling Banerjee: “You took them from Congress to TMC.”
Responding to her, Kalyan Banerjee said TMC founder and former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee was “forced” out of the Congress party earlier.
“…Even I was with the Congress once. I was the vice-president of the Youth Congress. You people forced Didi (Mamata Banerjee) to leave in 1997,” he replied.
The Congress MP then said, “Rajiv (Gandhi) ji respected Didi a lot,” and Banerjee agreed with her.
Banerjee then added that the Congress party joined hands with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) after Mamata was “forced out of Congress”, even as the TMC’s fight was against the CPI-M in West Bengal.
Later, Congress MP Pappu Yadav asked Banerjee whether the Congress was standing with the TMC during the current crisis. To this, Banerjee agreed.
TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee on Monday wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, requesting an early hearing on the disqualification petitions filed against the 20 rebel MPs who joined the NCPI.
In the letter, Banerjee, who is the leader of the Trinamool Congress parliamentary party in the Lok Sabha, said more than five weeks had passed since the petitions were submitted. He added that no notices had been issued and no hearings had been fixed, adding that “such continued inaction is a matter of grave concern”.
He said the 20 MPs were eligible for disqualification under the anti-defection law.
Banerjee added that the constitutional authority given to the Speaker under Paragraph 6 of the Tenth Schedule must be exercised within a reasonable period to ensure the anti-defection law remains effective and serves its intended purpose.
With inputs from agencies
