Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Kalyan Banerjee arrived at Parliament House on Thursday wearing posters of the party’s 20 rebel MPs around his neck, in an apparent protest against their defection from the party.
During his visit, Banerjee met and interacted with several Opposition MPs, including Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
During their conversation, Priyanka Gandhi pointed towards the posters and asked Banerjee whether the same images were displayed on the reverse side as well. Banerjee replied that they were.
The conversation then turned to their political journeys. Banerjee said that he had contested his first election as a Congress candidate.
Responding to this, Priyanka Gandhi remarked that TMC chief Mamata Banerjee had been treated well during her time in the Congress and that former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had held her in high regard.
Banerjee has been suspended from the remainder of the Monsoon Session of Parliament since July 21 after being accused of using objectionable language against a woman MP.
The development comes after 20 of the TMC’s 28 Lok Sabha MPs broke away from the party on June 14 by forming a separate faction before subsequently merging with the NCPI, dealing a major blow to the Trinamool Congress in Parliament.
Referring to the NDA Parliamentary Party meeting held in the Parliament complex on Tuesday, Banerjee said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union ministers and MPs who had defected from the TMC to join the NCPI were all present at the meeting.
When asked where the rebel MPs were, Banerjee remarked that they were “sitting right inside Parliament next to Prime Minister Modi.”
Responding to a question on action against the defectors, Banerjee said the matter falls under the anti-defection law and that a petition seeking action had already been filed. He alleged that despite five weeks having passed, no decision had been taken on the petition.
“Nothing has happened even after five weeks, but anything can happen under BJP rule,” Banerjee said, criticising the delay in acting against the rebel MPs.
During the interaction, Priyanka Gandhi also commented on political defections, saying that some MPs had moved from the Congress to the Trinamool Congress and later joined the BJP.
