Like the West Bengal Assembly, a major split within the Trinamool Congress has emerged in the Lok Sabha. Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, who showed signs of a rebellion since the assembly election results, has announced her support for the BJP along with 19 other TMC MPs. The Trinamool Congress currently has 28 MPs in the Lok Sabha.

This comes days after a separate faction of 58 TMC MLAs got Assembly Speaker Rabindranath Bose's approval for the appointment of Ritabrata Banerjee as LoP against Mamata's choice of Sohandeb Chhattopadhyay.

Is Rajya Sabha factionism next?

In the Rajya Sabha too, TMC suffered a setback as MP Sukhendu Sekhar Ray resigned from the House as well as all party posts. There are also reports that Rajya Sabha MP Koyal Malik is planning her resignation. Now, TMC is divided into three camps: a parliamentary faction led by Kakoli, a legislative party faction led by Ritabrata and apparently the weakest of Mamata.

Mamata in Delhi, MPs rebel

The Lok Sabha rebellion was even more shocking for Mamata's faction, as she was in Delhi with her nephew and Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee to attend the INDIA bloc meeting.

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While their meeting was underway at the Constitutional Club, another meeting of rebel TMC MPs was being held at BJP leader Bhupendra Yadav's residence in the presence of West Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari.

How would Lok Sabha maths change?

Since 20 MPs are more than two-thirds majority of the parliamentary party in the Lok Sabha, the MPs will not face disqualification and will be immune from the Anti-Defection law of Schedule 10.

However, the law does not provide for the separation of a faction of a party. This provision was removed in the 2003 amendment, and the breaking faction can only merge with another party, akin to the Raghav Chadha-led faction in the Rajya Sabha.

Since the faction has extended support to the BJP-led NDA, they are likely to merge with the BJP, taking its tally to 260.

However, previous instances like the case of the Shiv Sena and NCP in Maharashtra prove that the majority faction is accorded with the symbol and status of the original party.

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Even in such a scenario, NDA's tally in the Lok Sabha will rise to 313. Also, the faction is likely to go for the same as it has challenged the decision to remove Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar as chief whip.

Reports suggest party general secretary and Lok Sabha parliamentary party leader Abhishek Banerjee did announce Kakoli Ghosh's removal as chief whip, but did not send a letter to the Lok Sabha secretariat. This means that technically, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar is still the chief whip in the Lok Sabha.