TMC urges LS Speaker to immediately disqualify turncoat MPs Sunil Mondal & Sisir Adhikari

TMC on Thursday urged Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to take immediate steps to disqualify its former party members Sunil Mondal and Sisir Adhikari as MPs. After a telephonic conversation with Birla, TMC Parliamentary Party leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay informed the media that the former had assured him to look into the matter. Representing the Bardhaman Purba constituency, Mondal joined BJP along with other leaders including Suvendu Adhikari at Union Home Minister Amit Shah's rally on December 19, 2020. 

On the other hand, Suvendu's father and Kanthi MP Sisir Adhikari switched allegiance to the saffron party on March 21, 2021, ahead of the West Bengal Assembly polls. Alleging that BJP is making repeated attempts to lure TMC members through "corruption, bribery, undue influence and other illegal means", Bandyopadhyay formally sought Mondal's disqualification on December 31, 2020. In the case of the Kanthi parliamentarian, he wrote to the Speaker in this regard on May 17 citing Rule 6 of the Members of Lok Sabha (disqualification on grounds of defection) Rules, 1985.

TMC sweeps West Bengal Assembly polls

After a hard-fought election campaign, TMC sprung a surprise by decisively winning the West Bengal election by bagging 213 seats whereas BJP could win in only 77 constituencies. The voter turnout for the seats that went to the polls in the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth phases was 84.63 per cent, 86.11 per cent, 84.61 per cent, 79.90 per cent, 82.49 per cent, 79.11 per cent, 76.90 per cent and 78.32 per cent respectively. While the JP Nadda-led party won 74 more seats than the previous election, its vote share of 38.13% could not pose a challenge to TMC which garnered a vote share of 47.94%.

While the ruling party bettered its performance compared to 2016, it suffered a minor blip as WB CM Mamata Banerjee lost from Nandigram to her BJP opponent Suvendu Adhikari. However, barring the Nandigram MLA, most other TMC leaders who had switched over to BJP prior to the election could not win their seats. Even ex-nominated Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta, Union Minister Babul Supriyo and BJP Lok Sabha MP Locket Chatterjee had to face defeat.

On the other hand, the Left-Congress-ISF alliance was routed failing to win even a single seat in the polls. Banerjee was sworn in as the CM for the third time on May 5. Since the poll results, multiple TMC-turned-BJP leaders including Sonali Guha, Sarala Murmu and Dipendu Biswas have expressed a desire to rejoin the Mamata Banerjee-led party.