The Trinamool Congress rebels in the Lok Sabha can no longer claim to be the “real” TMC after merging with the little-known Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), Supreme Court senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani has said.
“You can’t steer two ships, it’s as simple as that,” Jethmalani told NDTV’s Padmaja Joshi in an exclusive interview on Monday.
Confirming that the rebels were planning to merge with the NCPI, MP Sudip Bandopadhyay had said they plan to stake claim to the Trinamool name and symbol later.
“When you leave with two-thirds of the party, you cannot demand the name of that party on the first day… In July, we will make a demand to give us the Trinamool (name) since we have a two-thirds majority. Then the court will decide,” Bandopadhyay, the latest addition to the group of MPs staging a revolt, said on Sunday.
Asked about this plan, Jethmalani said people can’t hold dual membership of parties.
“That (claiming the Trinamool name) can’t happen. They have given up. That ship has sailed now, they have abandoned ship, they have crossed over to another ship. You can’t steer two ships, it’s as simple as that,” he said.
To a question on the constitutional propriety of merging with a party like the NCPI, whose candidates polled fewer votes than NOTA in the 2023 Tripura election, the lawyer said the move is constitutionally okay.
“It’s unexpected, right? It’s surprising. It may make you raise your eyebrows… but constitutionally, there’s nothing wrong with it. Absolutely nothing wrong. If there’s a registered political party and you want to merge with it for whatever reason… And your reasons can be merely because you want to avoid the anti-defection law. Fair enough,” he said.
Jethmalani also argued that the Trinamool Congress had been discredited.
“I think these chaps are doing the right thing. It’s better to have a new branding rather than sticking to a discredited one, which is going to face a lot of trouble because of the crimes that have been committed by those who steered the ship there… You don’t realise the kind of crimes that have been committed. This was a fascist government. There was no difference between the ruling party and the organs of state, like the police, particularly,” he said.
