TRINAMOOL HEADED FOR ‘INEVITABLE’ COLLAPSE IN PARLIAMENT

The political earthquake that buried Trinamool Congress's legislative wing last week appears to have set off dangerous aftershocks in Parliament, with sources confirming that at least 22 of the party's 41 MPs—across both Houses—are now in active contact with the BJP and may mount a formal split as early as this week, timing it to coincide with Mamata Banerjee’s arrival in Delhi for an I.N.D.I.A bloc meeting.

- SUPROTIM MUKHERJEE

The number, independently corroborated by sources within the Kolkata rebel bloc, represents a near-clean sweep if accurate. To trigger the anti-defection provisions under the Tenth Schedule of the Indian Constitution and claim to be the “real” Trinamool Congress, a rebel faction needs a two-thirds majority—specifically, 19 of the party's 28 Lok Sabha members and 9 of its 13 Rajya Sabha members. By the rebels’ own count, they are already there.

BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya did not mince words when asked about the reported contacts.

“Yes, phone calls are being made. They are being made by Trinamool MPs to us,” he said, before adding, with undisguised relish, “Trinamool is now a thing of the past. In the near future, it will be reduced to a small chapter of Islamic history.”

BJP state general secretary Locket Chatterjee was blunter still. “Many are in touch, constant touch now. Especially since the May 4 results. Texts.

Whats Ann. calls, what not," she said, laughing when asked what the exchanges were about. "They want to switch sides, what else?" Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari also spent some time in Delhi last week, where his presence is being seen as "operationally significant".

Sources say the rebel parliamentary group is being informally led by Barasat MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, who spent Friday on X weaponising Woodrow Wilson's remarks on the inevitability of making enemies, reinforcing it with Charles Mackay's poetic verse challenging those without foes as having achieved nothing, and ending with a blunt ultimatum: "Don't stir a hornet's nest." She did not pick up calls.