KOLKATA: Rebel TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, a long-time confidante of Mamata Banerjee, on Monday said that concerns over “national interest” and governance issues had pushed her to support a breakaway position from the party amid growing internal divisions within the TMC, according to news agency ANI. This came after Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Ray resigned from the party and the Upper House, a move that was accepted by the Chairman. Speaking to the media, rebel TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said the decision was not driven by political opportunism but by long-standing dissatisfaction with the situation in the state.“Things have been getting from bad to worse, and I have been with Mamata Banerjee for 40 years… It is useless to say that just because she is not in power in West Bengal, I have left. It is not that… In the last 3–4 years, the pressure was too much on government officers to work according to the whims and fancies of certain leadership… We want to work for the development of the state and for the national interest and the safety and security of the nation. That is why we want to work separately,” she said. The development comes amid rising political tensions following the party’s electoral setback in the West Bengal Assembly elections, which has intensified factional disputes within the organisation. The political rift within the Trinamool Congress has widened in recent days, with signs of a possible split in the Lok Sabha after internal unrest first surfaced in the West Bengal Assembly. The crisis has deepened as rebel leaders within the party have begun asserting an independent position. Rebel TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar on Monday escalated the situation, announcing that a group of 20 MPs had formally approached the Lok Sabha Speaker seeking separate seating arrangements in Parliament. Speaking to ANI on the development, Ghosh Dastidar said, “We are 20 MPs who have requested the Speaker for separate seating, and we will be working in conjunction with the Central and State Government for the development of West Bengal.” Highlighting the reasons behind the move, she added, “We are against the lawlessness, misgovernance and unemployment in the state of West Bengal over the past few years.” The internal divide was also visible in Delhi, where rival groups of MPs held separate meetings. While Mamata Banerjee, along with senior leader Abhishek Banerjee and loyalists, attended an INDIA bloc meeting at the Constitution Club, the breakaway faction held parallel discussions at another location. The dissident camp, which includes senior leaders such as Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, who resigned earlier, has also been engaged in separate political consultations, highlighting the widening gap within the party leadership. According to political developments, the rebel group appears to be positioning itself within the framework of the anti-defection law. Under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, a split is protected only if at least two-thirds of a party’s legislators support it. With the TMC holding 28 Lok Sabha seats, the required threshold stands at 19 MPs, and the claim of around 20 MPs backing the faction places it within that range. The developments mark one of the most serious internal challenges for the Trinamool Congress in Parliament, pointing towards a deepening organisational split and raising questions over the party’s future unity.
