Image: IANS
NEW DELHI: Amid speculation that she could join a group of rebel Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha MPs, TMC’s Jadavpur MP Saayoni Ghosh arrived in New Delhi on Sunday but declined to comment on the developments. Speaking to reporters at the airport, Ghosh said, “I will not say anything now. I will only speak when the time is right.”Meanwhile, TMC MP Mala Roy also arrived in New Delhi on Sunday amid the ongoing political turmoil and signs of dissent within the party ranks.Her arrival in Delhi comes a day before a proposed meeting between the rebel TMC MPs and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, during which they are expected to seek a separate seating arrangement in the Lower House.On Saturday, TMC’s Kolkata North MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay met union environment minister Bhupender Yadav at his residence in New Delhi along with rebel MP Satabdi Roy.The meeting drew a response from within the party after Krishnanagar MP Mahua Moitra alleged that Bandyopadhyay had informed the party that he was hospitalised in Kolkata with a stomach ailment before being seen at Yadav’s residence in Delhi.“His mask & his wig both come off — @SudipBAITC told us he was in Apollo Kolkata with a tummy bug when we suddenly saw him on TV in Delhi in Bhupinder Yadav’s home,” Moitra said through a post on X. Bandyopadhyay’s move would take the number of rebel MPs to 20 out of the TMC’s 28 Lok Sabha members. The dissident camp argues that this gives it the two-thirds strength required to seek recognition as a separate group in the House under anti-defection provisions, a claim disputed by the party leadership.In West Bengal, the rebellion has also spread to the state unit, with 60 of the party’s 80 MLAs reportedly backing the dissident faction. The developments come after the TMC’s defeat in the April Assembly elections, which brought an end to Mamata Banerjee’s 15-year tenure as chief minister.
