A veteran Trinamool MP claimed on Thursday that the party could crumble in Parliament “sooner than anybody imagined”, mirroring the dizzying pace at which Mamata Banerjee’s MLAs had abandoned her on Wednesday.
Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, 77, chose a quiet corridor between parliamentary committee rooms in New Delhi to speak to The Telegraph on Thursday evening.
“I have come to know from two-three most reliable sources that a similar collapse of the parliamentary party might also happen soon,” Ray said, refusing to reveal the sources of his information. “Sooner than anybody imagined.”
“Yes, talks are happening. They are taking place for real... very much so. Feelers are being sent from concerned, relevant quarters to numerous (Trinamool) MPs,” he said. “Undeniable. Unstoppable too, perhaps.”
To bypass the anti-defection law under the Tenth Schedule, a rebel faction requires a two-thirds majority. Trinamool, which is the third-largest party in Parliament after the BJP and the Congress, has 28 Lok Sabha members at the moment after the death of Basirhat MP Haji Nurul Islam and 13 Rajya Sabha members.
For a Calcutta-like operation, where 58 of the party’s 80 MLAs have broken away, a rebel group in Parliament will need the support of 19 Lok Sabha and 9 Rajya Sabha members.
Ray said the blueprint was similar to the Assembly coup on Wednesday.
“Two-thirds of Trinamool MPs in either House could soon approach the Lok Sabha Speaker or the Rajya Sabha Chairman to claim they are the ashol (real) Trinamool,” the lawyer-MP said. “After that, it’s the presiding officer’s prerogative.”
Multiple high-level sources within Trinamool said at least nine Lok Sabha and three Rajya Sabha members had already expressed their “extreme eagerness” for negotiations.
This newspaper has learned that in addition to “disgruntled” MPs who appeared to be bound for the BJP, at least two Trinamool Lok Sabha members are said to be trying to gain entry to the Congress, having initiated back-channel conversations with Rahul Gandhi’s “emissaries”.
During the 2024 RG Kar crisis, Ray’s vocal support for the street protests had led to his removal as editor of the party’s mouthpiece and earned him a Lalbazar summons.
On May 19, Ray wrote on X that republics fall “when profligates thrive and the wise are banished from the council”.
A week later, he tied the party’s debacle in the Assembly elections to a popular revolt against misrule: “On 44 BC, the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar was stabbed to death in the Senate on the Ides of March.
“As per Roman calendar, Ides generally meant (the) 15th of March, May, July and October. But before Ides of May, people of West Bengal put an end to (an) unbearable anarchical situation.”
Asked whether he had been approached as part of the purported plan for a parliamentary break-up, Ray said: “No, I have not received any such feelers yet.”
He added: “I have to decide, thoroughly introspect on my future. I could either continue this way, or quit as a Rajya Sabha member, or retire from politics entirely.”