20 Trinamool rebel MPs write to Lok Sabha Speaker, say want to join NDA, end ties with Abhishek Banerjee-led bloc

4 min readKolkataUpdated: Jun 8, 2026 05:02 PM IST

On Friday, even as Mamata and her camp leaders called up legislators to try to hold the party together, none of the 60 rebel MLAs attended a meeting she called at her residence in the evening.

As many as 20 out of 28 Trinamool Congress MPs, led by senior party leader Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, have written to Speaker Om Birla, saying that they want to be part of the BJP-led NDA and snap ties with the Trinamool parliamentary party led by its national general secretary and party chief Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee.

The decision was taken during a meeting at the Delhi residence of Union Minister and senior BJP leader Bhupender Yadav. West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, who is in Delhi, also met the rebel MPs at the minister’s home.

Sharmila Sarkar, Trinamool MP from Bardhaman Purba and one of the rebels, told media, “We held a meeting. We want to sit separately. I respect Didi. I wanted to work, but I could not. Under the leadership of Kakoli di, this separate bloc has been formed. This will help in the development of Bengal.”

Earlier, a big chunk of the party’s 80 MLAs refused to accept Mamata Banerjee’s choice of Sovandeb Chattopadhyay as the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly. (PTI)

“We are 20 MPs. We held a meeting at Bhupender Yadav’s residence in the presence of Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari. We need to support NDA for Bengal’s development. Kakoli di submitted the letter. So far, she is leading our bloc,” she said.

The dramatic developments came on a day when the TMC supremo and Abhishek Banerjee were in the national capital to attend a meeting of the INDIA opposition bloc.

The Trinamool Congress is imploding in the aftermath of the party’s crushing defeat in the West Bengal Assembly election. Earlier, a big chunk of the party’s 80 MLAs refused to accept Mamata Banerjee’s choice of Sovandeb Chattopadhyay as the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly. This meltdown has now shifted to Delhi, with Trinamool’s Lok Sabha contingent joining the rebellion.

Numbers are significant

It should be noted that 20 out of 28 Lok Sabha MPs in the rebel camp shield them against the provisions of the anti-defection law. Their support for the NDA also gives the BJP a big edge in Parliament, effectively neutralising the challenge from the third-largest opposition party in the House.

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While the fate of Trinamool’s Rajya Sabha contingent is not clear, senior party leader and Upper House MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy resigned earlier Monday. The party has 13 MPs in the Upper House.

“In the recently held West Bengal Assembly election, the people have given huge mandate in favour of the Bhartiya Janata Party for the first time in the history of the state to put an end to 15-year anarchical rule of the Trinamool Congress arising out of widespread unbridled corruption, atrocities committed against women, abysmal failure in the field of health, education, industry, law and order, employment, etc. Meanwhile, the newly elected people’s government has started taking initiatives for overall development and reconstruction of West Bengal as per its Election Manifesto,” Roy said in a statement.

“In respectful acceptance of this historic verdict of the people, I have resigned today from the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) as a member and also from the primary membership of the All India Trinamool Congress,” he added.

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