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Six-time Trinamool Congress MP and person of the enactment successful Lok Sabha, Sudip Bandyopadhyay connected Saturday (June 13, 2026) met Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) person Bhupendra Yadav sparking speculation of joining the rebel campy of Trinamool Congress MPs.
Mr. Bandyopadhyay, who has been representing Kolkata Uttar (North) Lok Sabha spot for decades, was accompanied by Birbhum Lok Sabha MP Satabdi Roy, who has already announced her allegiance to the rebel camp.
Sudip Bandyopadhyay, 77, who is older than enactment chairperson Mamata Banerjee (71), has been 1 of the astir trusted aides of the latter. With his imaginable defection to the rebel camp, the fig of MPs supporting the campy volition summation to 20.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, 29 MPs of the Trinamool Congress were elected to the Lok Sabha. Basirhat Trinamool Congress MP Haji Sheikh Nurul Islam passed distant successful September 2024, bringing the fig of Trinamool MPs to 28. With Mr. Bandyopadhyay joining the rebel ranks, the fig of Mamata Banerjee loyalists has dropped to eight. Among those backing Mamata Banerjee successful the Lok Sabha, the salient names are Kalyan Banerjee, Saugata Roy, Mahua Moitra, Kirti Azad, Shatrughan Sinha, Abhishek Banerjee and others.
Sudip Bandyopadhyay’s sojourn to Delhi and a gathering with Union Minister Bhupendra Yadav comes days earlier rebel Trinamool MPs are going to conscionable the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and involvement assertion arsenic an autarkic radical backing the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance authorities astatine the Centre. The seasoned MP changing governmental loyalties evoked beardown reactions from governmental circles.
Mr. Bandyopadhyay’s woman Nayna Bandyopadhyay who is an MLA from Chowrangee spot is besides apt to articulation rebel MLAs. About 60 of the 80 MLAs of the Trinamool Congress person travel retired against the enactment precocious bid and supported expelled MLA Ritabrata Banerjee arsenic Leader of Opposition.
Senior BJP person and West Bengal Industry Minister Tapas Roy, who had discontinue the Trinamool Congress successful 2024 owed to differences with Sudip Bandyopadhyay, said the Kolkata Uttar MP “will beryllium a liability wherever helium goes”.
“They were ne'er loyalists, not adjacent governmental elements. They person risen successful his vocation by clinging to someone’s support, sometimes holding onto Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, and astatine different times, Mamata Banerjee. They person done perfectly nothing, neither for the nationalist nor for immoderate party. Now Mamata Banerjee is realising who genuinely stands by her,” Mr. Roy said.
Trinamool Congress MLA Kunal Ghosh, who remains loyal to Trinamool chairperson, besides spoke successful akin vein and launched a scathing onslaught connected elder enactment person Sudip Bandyopadhyay.
Mr. Ghosh said that Sudip Bandyopadhyay’s displacement toward a rebel faction comes with his woman Nayna Bandyopadhyay besides following the aforesaid way and joining those supporting the BJP. The Beleghata MLA said that Trinamool chairperson gave positions of prominence to specified radical and they are turning against her.
