The "AITC [Trinamool Congress, TMC] is a single, indivisible political party," said Mamata Banerjee's faction in a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Sunday.
The letter was submitted by TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, following reports where rebel leader Kakoli Ghosh was quoted as saying that dissident MPs would meet Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Monday to seek recognition as a separate parliamentary bloc.
In the letter, the All India Trinamool Congress Parliamentary Party stated, “This letter is to place on record, respectfully but firmly, the constitutional and legal position governing any such request, and to request that no recognition of the nature reported be accorded.”
"The AITC is a single, indivisible political party. The legislative party in the Lok Sabha derives its very existence from, and remains an emanation of, the political party," the letter stated.
The letter cited law to claim that "only one AITC, one Leader of the Party in the House, and one Whip, all of whom hold office by authority of the political party and its competent organisational authority."
"No member or set of members can, by their own volition, carve out a parallel 'group' or 'faction' of the same party and claim independent recognition within the House," the letter asserted.
'Disqualification’
Mamata Banerjee's faction the law does not recognise the splintering of a political party into competing groups as a permissible event. "It treats such conduct, instead, through the lens of disqualification," the leaders added.
The camp based its argument on the judgment of the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in Subhash Desai v. Principal Secretary, Governor of Maharashtra & Ors., 2023 INSC 516 (AIR 2023 SC 2406).
"The defence of a 'split' stands abrogated," they said, adding that the Supreme Court held that the “omission of Paragraph 3 of the Tenth Schedule by the Constitution (Ninety-first Amendment) Act, 2003 has the effect that the defence of a 'split' is no longer available to members facing proceedings under the Tenth Schedule.”
'Political party' is 'supreme'
The letter emphasised that the political party — not the legislature party — is supreme.
"The Hon'ble Court held that it is the political party, and not the legislature party, that appoints the Whip and the Leader of the party in the House, and that the direction to vote in a particular manner, or to abstain, is issued by the political party and not the legislature party," it added.
"It follows that no breakaway set of members may appoint their own Leader or Whip, or seek recognition as a distinct entity, in derogation of the authority of the political party," the letter added, citing the Supreme Court ruling.
"The Speaker recognises the political party, not rival factions," the letter claimed.
The leaders, therefore, requested the Lok Sabha Speaker to:
(i) place this submission on record;
(ii) treat the AITC as a single political party represented in the House solely through its duly authorised Leader and Whip, and decline to accord any recognition, status, or facility to any purported separate group or faction of the AITC; and
(iii) afford the AITC an opportunity of being heard before any decision is taken on any communication of the nature referred to above, should the same be received.
"It is also respectfully submitted that the AITC reserves its rights, including its right to initiate appropriate proceedings under the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution, in respect of any conduct falling foul of the provisions referred to herein," Abhishek Banerjee said.
