Abhishek asks TMC MPs to protest 'independently' in Parliament

New Delhi: Trinamool Congress national general secretary and Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee met the party MPs on Tuesday at the Parliament deciding to firm up their demand to revoke the suspension of 12 Rajya Sabha MPs, including 2 members of TMC and joined the protest site at Gandhi statue inside the Parliament premises.

The meeting was further aimed at deciding the party's strategy till December 23, the end of the ongoing winter session. Party sources said that it has been decided that TMC will not follow any other like-minded political party's path to protest against the "fascist BJP from bulldozing the democracy" by not allowing opposition members for raising voices against the centre's policies on the Floor of the House and to go "independent". During the meeting, the senior leader of Trinamool, Abishek Banerjee made a scathing attack on Congress and said, "In West Bengal, they (Congress) are fighting the TMC, while we are moving to another state, and fighting against BJP, it accused us of breaking the opposition unity. Congress is maintaining a double-standard role."

Banerjee also categorically mentioned that wherever BJP has a weak opponent, the party will come up with a state unit and fight the saffron party.

TMC claimed that in the 17th Lok Sabha, almost four ordinances were brought in for every 10 bills and how it had been misused since 2014. The party also claimed that during UPA's regime 60 to 70 per cent of Bills were sent for scrutiny in ten years, whereas now, in BJP-led NDA's regime, it has come down to only 10 per cent.

During the parliamentary party meeting, it has also been decided that TMC MPs of both the Houses will regularly attend the session as the party's motto is to run the Parliament. They do not have any intention to disrupt the proceedings of the House. TMC's Upper House members Dola Sen and Shanta Chhetri were among the 12 members of Rajya Sabha suspended for the rest of the winter session for "unruly and violent behaviour" during the last day of the monsoon session. The party also left no stones unturned to accuse the incumbent government at the Centre of promulgating ordinances to mock Parliament.

Further, sources said that Abhishek Banerjee also discussed various issues with the party MPs that need to be brought up in the Parliament, including the Nagaland tragedy where 13 civilians were killed in an Army ambush, prevailing COVID situation, and the centre's vaccination policy for children, violence against Trinamool members during the municipal poll in Agartala etc.

Further, as it was a planned and pre-scheduled meeting of all TMC MPs, the national general secretary also asked for clarification from the absentees, a TMC source claimed.

On the other hand, TMC also demanded Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri's apology to Rajya Sabha MP Santanu Sen, as the party alleged that the minister abused the member during the monsoon session, while Sen allegedly snatched papers from Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who was to make a suo motu statement in House on July 22, tore them into pieces and flung the same on Chair.

Twenty-nine TMC MPs, including Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Mahua Moitra, Saugata Roy, Kalyan Banerjee, Satabdi Roy, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Aparoopa Poddar, Pratima Mandal, Prasun Banerjee, Deepak Adhikari (Dev) and other Lok Sabha members were present during the Parliamentary party meeting of Trinamool. Except for Mimi Chakraborty and Nusrat Jahan. Whereas Sukhendu Shekhar Ray, Derek O'Brien, Sushmita Deb, Subrata Bakshi, Jawahar Sircar and other members of Rajya Sabha also attended the meeting, except Luizinho Faleiro.