Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. File
| Photo Credit: ANI
Amid a petition by the Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar-led faction of 20 rebel Trinamool Congress MPs to merge with the Nationalist Citizen Party of India (NCPI), Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Monday (June 16, 2026) invited the group of TMC MPs led by Mamata Banerjee to “present their case”.
The Speaker’s office was responding to TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee’s letter of June 10. The letter urged the Speaker not to recognise or grant separate status to any rebel TMC faction in the Lok Sabha. Mr. Banerjee said the TMC is a “single, indivisible political party”and that the legislative party cannot be separated from the parent organisation and that no breakaway group based on signatures can claim recognition.
According to the Mamata Banerjee faction, the invitation from the Speaker’s office addressed to Mr. Banerjee came at 2 p.m., asking him to meet the Speaker at 4 p.m.
On Monday (June 16, 2026), Mr. Banerjee was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate for 11 hours in Kolkata.
Party Lok Sabha MP Kirti Azad informed the Speaker’s office that since Mr. Banerjee did not have access to his email, he would be informed once the interrogation concluded.
Meanwhile, Mr. Azad went and met Mr. Birla.
Published – June 16, 2026 12:51 pm IST
