Opposition Parties Walk Out Over Invite to TMC Breakaway Faction

NEW DELHI: In solidarity with the Mamata Banerjee-headed Trinamool Congress, opposition parties on Sunday staged a rare walkout from the all-party meeting to protest the govt’s invite to its breakaway faction, even as both warring groups took potshots at one another, foretelling a fiery session of Parliament from Monday. Govt, however, defended its decision, asserting that it cannot deny space to the faction of 20 MPs who have approached Speaker Om Birla for recognising their merger with Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) and have already been allotted separate seats in Lok Sabha. “It is govt’s duty to invite every group,” parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju told reporters. Playing down the walkout, he said it was only for a brief period as opposition parties rejoined the meeting soon. Facing disintegration and an existential crisis, TMC has leaned on other opposition parties, including Congress, which used to get short shrift from the party in Parliament when Mamata was West Bengal’s chief minister, to strengthen its cause. John Brittas of CPM, which has been a bitter critic of Mamata, said they supported the party in the walkout in the interests of parliamentary democracy which is under “attack” from BJP. As Mahua Moitra, who is among the eight Lok Sabha MPs siding with Mamata, called the majority bloc of 20 MPs “traitors” and demanded their disqualification, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, the chosen leader of breakaway faction, retorted that a “small” party with only eight MPs no longer deserves front row seating in House. Mahua was joined by members of other opposition parties as she slammed the invitation to Sudip as the NCPI leader and to Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar as its chief whip and claimed that they cannot be recognised under anti-defection law. Only original party can merge with another party, she added.