Senior Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy said on Monday that he had turned down an offer from the BJP to switch sides, asserting he would stay in the party on whose symbol he was elected, even as he credited the opposition INDIA bloc with shoring up the TMC at a moment of acute strain.
"Yes, I got an offer (from the BJP) to join it. But I rejected it. I will stay in the party on whose symbol I won the election," Roy told news agency ANI.
His remarks came on the day the TMC's leadership huddled with INDIA bloc partners in Delhi even as the party battled visible defections at home, with a Rajya Sabha MP resigning and a group of Lok Sabha members meeting West Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP.
Roy said the party was under sustained pressure and that backing from allies would strengthen it.
"TMC is being targeted and attacked a lot. If other parties support TMC, it will provide strength to the TMC," he said.
He cited the main opposition party Congress's response after a recent mob attack on TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee in Sonarpur as evidence of that support.
{{/usCountry}}He cited the main opposition party Congress's response after a recent mob attack on TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee in Sonarpur as evidence of that support.
{{/usCountry}}“When there was an attack on Abhishek Banerjee, Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi from the Congress condemned it,” Roy said, referring to the Congress president and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
His show of loyalty stood in contrast to the turmoil engulfing the TMC after its rout in the assembly elections, in which the BJP won 208 of West Bengal's 294 seats and ended Mamata Banerjee's tenure as chief minister, unbroken since 2011.
What Saugata Roy said
Saugata Roy, serving his fifth Lok Sabha term at the age of 76, was asked why the fractures appeared in the TMC. He said the rebellion is by “those who do politics but don't have mental strength”.
“When the situation is bad, they change their attitude. This is what has happened,” he said referring to the assembly poll loss.
On whether the party could potentially lose its name and symbol to a rebel grouping, he said, “The symbol is given by the Election Commission. That situation has not come yet.”
He said the TMC would “stand up again”, as and when “Mamata Banerjee hits the street”. He listed her nephew Abhishek Banerjee among younger parliamentarians who could overcome the crisis.
He said the BJP had effected MLA's defection by telling them they would get more support in the area.
Cracks reach Delhi
Earlier on Monday, TMC founding leader Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, 77, resigned from the Rajya Sabha and the party's primary membership, citing corruption and alleged mishandling of the 2024 rape and murder of a trainee doctor at Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College.
This brought the TMC's strength in the Upper House to 12. Several TMC Lok Sabha MPs — number reportedly between six and 13 — met Adhikari and their leader Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said they would write to LS Speaker Om Birla seeking recognition as a separate faction.
The party has 28 members in the Lok Sabha; a breakaway group would need 19 to escape disqualification under the anti-defection law.
These moves followed a revolt in the TMC's state legislature wing, where around 60 TMC MLAs backed expelled rebel Ritabrata Banerjee for Leader of the Opposition over the official nominee.
Mamata Banerjee, accompanied by Abhishek Banerjee, attended the INDIA bloc meeting at Delhi's Constitution Club, which drew 23 parties and ended with a decision to meet more frequently. Kharge, as convener of the bloc, called for unity.