Counting the converts

As MPs desert opposition parties, the BJP edges closer to the parliamentary strength needed for constitutional amendments and sweeping reforms

- BY PRATUL SHARMA By Dr Mohammed Rehan Sayeed

On June 8, two meetings took place in Delhi at the same time, just a few kilometres apart.

Each could shape national politics in the months ahead.

At the Constitution Club, Trinamool Congress supremo and former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her nephew, Lok Sabha member Abhishek Banerjee, joined a meeting of the INDIA bloc to work out a common strategy against the BJP and present a united front.

At the Motilal Nehru Marg residence of Union Minister Bhupender Yadav, the BJP’s election in-charge for West Bengal during the campaign that had just ended the Trinamool’s 15-year rule, a different meeting was under way. Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, a four-term MP from North Kolkata and the Trinamool’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha until a fortnight earlier, was there. So was Suvendu Adhikari, the state’s new chief minister. Around them sat 20 MPs preparing to switch sides.

Within hours, Dastidar submitted a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking a separate seating arrangement for the group. The MPs said they wanted to work with both the Centre and the state government for West Bengal’s development, citing the previous regime’s “lawlessness and misgovernance.” Another twist followed within days. The rebels merged with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India, a little-known outfit.

The script differed slightly from that of the breakaway faction of the Raghav Chadha-led Aam Aadmi Party in the Rajya Sabha, which had merged with the BJP in April rather than forming a separate party. In both cases, the rebels ensured they had the support of two-thirds of their respective legislative parties to avoid attracting the anti-defection law.