Trinamool Congress on verge of collapse? More MPs, leaders leaving party, BJP reaping benefits

NEW DELHI: Is Mamta Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress on the verge of a complete collapse? One more party’s Rajya Sabha MP Prakash Chik Barik has resigned today. With this, three Trinamool Rajya Sabha MPs have resigned from the party in the past few days. The party's leader from Assam and Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev had resigned yesterday. With Barik's resignation, the party's strength in the Rajya Sabha will be reduced to 10. It is reported that more Trinamool MPs will leave the party by next week. If that happens, the crisis in the party will worsen.

The fact that Mamata Banerjee's efforts to stop MPs from leaving the party are not paying off is evidence that more leaders are leaving the party. Most who bid goodbye were Mamata's closest allies until the results of the Bengal assembly elections were announced. Trinamool said BJP’s move is to eliminate Mamata and the party.

Meanwhile, 19 of the 28 Lok Sabha MPs of the Trinamool Congress will sit in the Lok Sabha as a separate bloc supporting the BJP. Since two-thirds of the MPs are changing, the anti-defection law will not apply. One of Trinamool's star campaigners and Jadavpur MP in the last assembly elections, Sayoni Ghosh, is also in the rebel group. It is learned that former cricketer Yusuf Pathan and former BJP leader and Bollywood star Shatrughan Sinha have also defected. The central government has also provided special security to Kakoli Ghosh, who initiated the rebel move.

Meantime, the Congress has made it clear that there is no merger with the Trinamool. The merger news was circulated after Mamata and her son-in-law Abhishek Banerjee met Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in Delhi for the ‘India’ meeting the other day. The news was that Trinamool conveyed interest in the merger. The Trinamool had the support of the Congress in the 2011 elections when it came to power in Bengal. After that, although it worked in the national forefront against the BJP, both the parties were in opposition in Bengal.