TMC rebel MPs seek three weeks to reply to Lok Sabha notice on disqualification plea

Twenty Lok Sabha MPs who quit the TMC and aligned themselves with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) have sought three weeks to respond to notices issued by Speaker Om Birla on a petition seeking their disqualification under the anti-defection law, senior leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay said on Tuesday (September 1, 2026).

The Lok Sabha Secretariat on August 26 issued notices to 20 rebel Trinamool Congress MPs and sought their replies within seven days on petitions filed by TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee seeking their disqualification, sources said.

The August 25 notice was sent to the MPs along with a copy of Banerjee’s petition dated June 18.

“We got a letter from the Lok Sabha Secretariat on August 26 seeking our reply regarding Abhishek Banerjee’s letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker requesting cancellation of the membership of 20 NCPI MPs. We have written to the Lok Sabha Secretariat seeking a time of three weeks to reply,” Bandyopadhyay, the NCPI’s Lok Sabha floor leader, told PTI.

Another NCPI MP said the rebel lawmakers were consulting lawyers before finalising their response, indicating that the group is preparing a detailed legal defence rather than rushing to meet the initial seven-day deadline.

The request for more time comes at a politically sensitive juncture, with the disqualification battle now unfolding alongside the larger organisational and legislative confrontation between the TMC leadership and the dissident camp.

The notices were issued after the Supreme Court on August 25 agreed to hear TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee’s plea seeking an expeditious decision by the Lok Sabha Speaker on petitions seeking disqualification of the rebel MPs.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana issued notice to the 20 MPs on Banerjee’s plea and directed that the disqualification proceedings before the Speaker be dealt with expeditiously.

Mr. Banerjee had approached the Supreme Court after filing separate petitions before the Speaker in June seeking disqualification of the MPs who had left the TMC and aligned themselves with the NCPI.

The Speaker’s notices subsequently asked the MPs to submit their responses within seven days.

The decision to seek additional time gives the rebel camp some breathing space as it weighs the legal and political implications of the disqualification proceedings, a rebel TMC MP said.

The MPs are also understood to be seeking legal opinions on the applicability of the anti-defection provisions to their case and the arguments that can be advanced before the Speaker.

The dispute over the 20 Lok Sabha seats is the latest flashpoint in a broader rupture that has transformed the TMC’s internal crisis into a direct institutional and political contest after its defeat in the assembly polls in May this year.

The dissident camp has already sought to demonstrate that it commands substantial support within the party’s elected representatives. In the West Bengal Assembly, 65 of the TMC’s 80 MLAs had backed Ritabrata Banerjee’s claim to the post of Leader of the Opposition, rejecting the nominee supported by the Mamata Banerjee camp.

The rebels subsequently convened a special session, elected senior MLA Arup Roy as chairperson and announced a parallel national leadership structure, arguing that the existing leadership had lost the confidence of a majority of elected representatives.

The confrontation then moved to Parliament, where 20 Lok Sabha MPs aligned themselves with the newly floated NCPI, and joined the BJP-led NDA.

For the TMC leadership, the parliamentary defections have been presented as evidence of a coordinated political shift towards the BJP. The dissident camp, however, has maintained that its political and organisational decisions are driven by the loss of confidence in the existing TMC leadership.

The disqualification proceedings have therefore acquired significance beyond the fate of individual MPs, with both camps closely watching whether the Speaker’s decision could alter the balance of political forces in West Bengal.