&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "TMC moves Supreme Court on MLAs as majority of NCPI MPs prepare for BJP switch")
The Trinamool Congress has escalated its battle against the Ritabrata Banerjee camp by filing a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court accusing the West Bengal Assembly Speaker of sitting on disqualification pleas against rebel MLAs even as 17 of the 20 breakaway TMC MPs who joined the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) earlier this year are now preparing to formally cross over to the BJP around Durga Puja.
The SLP, filed by Shobhandeb Chattopadhyay, names 10 MLAs: Ritabrata Banerjee, Arup Roy, Firhad Hakim, Sandipan Saha, Akhruzzaman, Shiuli Saha, Sabina Yasmin, Biplab Mitra, Javed Khan and Rathin Ghosh.
Party MP Kalyan Banerjee said this is only the opening move, leaving the door open for the rest of the rebel camp. “We have given you some oxygen. First, we will seek the disqualification of these 10 MLAs. If you want to return, come back,” he said.
Banerjee also confirmed that TMC will press for a hearing on the 17th, calling the party's case strong on merit, and dismissed the rival camp's newly fielded candidate — contesting on the symbol Mamata Banerjee retained — as a betrayal from a leader few expected to turn “traitor”.
The parallel fight in Parliament
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The Assembly petition mirrors an earlier split in the Lok Sabha. On June 14, twenty dissident TMC MPs merged with the little-known NCPI and threw their support behind the NDA, a rebellion that has kept Bengal’s anti-defection questions alive ever since.
Cooch Behar MP Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia, who confirmed the move on Monday, said the two-thirds threshold shields the group from disqualification. Three others — Abu Taher Khan, Khalilur Rahaman and Yusuf Pathan — will not go for formal BJP membership given the political sensitivities of their constituencies, and will instead back the NDA from outside, possibly with “important responsibilities or portfolios,” Basunia said.
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Banerjee, reacting to this, accused the BJP of using the group and being reluctant to actually absorb them, and suggested the party’s Muslim MPs specifically were being sidelined in the process.
BJP keeps NCPI at arm’s length in civic polls
With Kolkata and Howrah civic elections approaching, West Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya has ruled out any alliance with the NCPI, saying the BJP would contest alone and aim for a two-thirds majority in both civic bodies on its own strength.
“NCPI is an ally of NDA. In West Bengal, BJP will go alone. We will secure a two-thirds majority in the Howrah and Kolkata civic bodies on our strength,” Bhattacharya told reporters.
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That contradicts NCPI's own position. Party MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay said his outfit intends to contest the Kolkata Municipal Corporation polls as part of the NDA, claiming senior BJP leaders had confirmed as much.
Banerjee dismissed the credibility of the rebel MPs on this front too, pointing to Bandyopadhyay's family's electoral record and challenging the breakaway group of 20 to first win even a single councillor's seat before claiming any real mandate.
The contradiction between the state BJP chief’s “going alone” stance and NCPI’s claim of an NDA ticket remains unresolved — much like the disqualification pleas pending before the Speaker, both in Delhi and Kolkata.
