20 petitions submitted seeking disqualification of rebel MPs: TMC's Abhishek Banerjee

Business To Business, New Delhi, 19^th June, 2026:  Abhishek Banerjee on Friday met Om Birla and submitted 20 petitions seeking the disqualification of 20 rebel Members of Parliament from the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC).
Speaking to the media after the meeting, Banerjee said the MPs had forfeited their right to remain members of the House under anti-defection provisions by leaving the party and associating themselves with another political formation.
According to Banerjee, the rebel MPs initially approached the Speaker seeking recognition as a separate group. However, he said it later emerged that they had claimed to have joined the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), a little-known political party.
"Twenty people met the Speaker and claimed they should be treated as a separate group. Later, we got to know those MPs claimed to have joined another party, NCPI. Nobody has heard the name of this group. Even they had not heard the name of this party," Banerjee said.
The petitions now place the matter before the Speaker, who will decide whether the MPs are liable for disqualification under the provisions of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, commonly known as the anti-defection law.