Trinamool’s Abhishek Banerjee to meet Lok Sabha Speaker over party split

TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee. File. | Photo credit: PTI

Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee will meet Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Friday (June 19, 2026) over the split in the party after 20 Lok Sabha MPs announced a “merger” with the Nationalist Civic Party of India (NCPI).

In a June 10 letter to the Speaker, Mr. Banerjee urged him not to recognize or grant separate status to any rebel faction of the TMC in the Lok Sabha. The letter was submitted to the Speaker’s office on June 14, just hours before the rebel faction met Mr. Birla.

The letter claimed that the TMC was a “single, indivisible political party” and that its legislative wing could not be separated from the parent organisation. He added that no breakaway group based on signatures alone could claim recognition.

The Speaker’s office first invited Mr Banerjee to meet him at 4pm on Monday, through an email sent at 2pm, the day he was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate. Mr. Banerjee asked for a new date and time to present his case, after which Mr. Birla scheduled a meeting for Friday.

Published – 17 June 2026 10:30 PM IST