Kolkata, June 15 (IANS) As rebel Trinamool MPs announced their decision to join a virtually non-existent and Tripura-based Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), instead of trying to take control of Trinamool Congress’ Parliamentary party in the Lok Sabha, where they are in the majority now, political observers and legal experts feel that apparently two factors prompted them to change strategy.

The first factor, according to political observers, is the nature of the party constitution as submitted to the Election Commission of India (ECI). This could have ultimately foiled the attempts of the rebel MPs to take control of the Trinamool’s Parliamentary Party in the Lok Sabha and subsequently claim the party’s logo and control the accumulated funds.

As per the Trinamool Congress constitution, submitted to the ECI in its foundation year, it was the state executive committee which identifies the higher decision-making authority within the party. Later, in the revised party constitution, the national working committee, which is centred around the chairperson (specifically former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee), was designated as the supreme decision-making body within the party.

“So as per both the original party constitution as well as the amended party constitution, in Trinamool Congress the organisation office-bearers within the party enjoy more control than the elected public representatives like the MPs and MLAs.

“Now, since the national working committee or the organisation office-bearers are 100 per cent Mamata Banerjee-centric directly, and her nephew and party General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee-centric indirectly, in the long run it would have been difficult for the rebel MPs to ultimately take control of Trinamool Congress’ Parliamentary party or party logo or party funds. In my opinion, that is the reason why exactly the rebels changed their strategy on this count at the last moment by joining a virtually-non-existent political force based out of Tripura,” said a city-based political observer.

CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member and senior advocate, Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya, feels that the entire gameplan is orchestrated by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as was evident from the series of meetings that the rebel MPs had at the residence of senior BJP leader and the Union Minister, Bhupendra Yadav in New Delhi.

“The main intention of the BJP is to get the support of the rebel Trinamool Congress MPs in passing important bills on the floor of Parliament. Hence, they took no chance, and instead of continuing with the efforts of taking control of Trinamool Congress’ Parliamentary party in the Lok Sabha, the new strategy of rebel MPs joining a new party was worked out,” Bhattacharya said.

Now, the question remains why the rebel MPs did not continue with the attempts to form a new and majority bloc in Trinamool Congress’ Parliamentary party in the Lok Sabha, despite the success of attempts of similarly forming a new and majority bloc in the West Bengal Assembly with the support of 60 out of 80 elected party MLAs.

Political observers feel that the strategy adopted by Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee after the formation of the majority rebel bloc of party legislators in the West Bengal Assembly played a key role in preventing the rebel party MPs from adopting the same strategy in the Lok Sabha.

“Immediately after formation of the rebel-block, Mamata Banerjee first announced the dissolution of all old internal party committees as well as internal committees of Trinamool Congress’ affiliated mass organisations. Thereafter, she announced the formation of new internal committees with the section of party leaders who continue their allegiance to her and her nephew. So, despite losing control over her Parliamentary team in Lok Sabha and legislative team in West Bengal Assembly, Mamata Banerjee continues her control in the national working committee of the party,” the city-based political observer pointed out.

–IANS

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