Phone Switched Off, A Connecting Flight: Inside Trinamool Rumblings

The Trinamool Congress is bracing for more turbulence after a resounding defeat in the West Bengal assembly elections, with the focus now shifting to Delhi. From phones being switched off to an MP taking a connecting flight for a sudden Delhi visit, a lot is brewing within the party that has been struggling to keep its flock together.

Sources told NDTV that a senior Trinamool MP, who had to travel from Mumbai to Kolkata last evening, had an unplanned layover in Delhi. During those few hours in the capital, the MP met people discreetly without raising an alarm, they said.

Sources identified this lawmaker as one from the surrounding districts of Kolkata.

Read: Bengal MLA Ritabrata Banerjee To NDTV On What's Next, "Backstabber" Label

The meeting in Delhi was aimed at discussing the party's plan of action over reports that 20 Trinamool MPs had been gathering support to write against the party leadership, they added.

Sources had earlier told NDTV that at least 20 out of Trinamool's 41 MPs (including both Houses) had been in touch with the BJP and may be planning to switch sides.

Besides, at least 60 out of its 80-odd MLAs had reportedly been backing a rebel faction led by lawmaker Ritabrata Banerjee after the election debacle last month, and had skipped multiple party activities in a visible show of defiance.

The resistance reflected not just in physical attendance but also in how they addressed their party leader. Revered as 'Didi' or elder sister by her partymen over the decades, Banerjee now finds herself being addressed by her first name - a demotion in perspective in the Indian context.

Sources said this came from an MP who has a sports background, though they stopped short of naming him.

Another MP representing a seat in North 24 Paraganas, who had been denied an assembly ticket, has switched off his phone for over 24 hours, in what sources say was another way of expressing dissent without speaking a word.

Read: Fear, Anxiety And 'Missing' Leadership: Inside The Trinamool Mutiny

This wasn't Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, sources were specific, referring to the Barasat MP who had raised eyebrows by attending Suvendu Adhikari's cabinet meeting and taking potshots at a colleague.

Another actor-turned-MP reached Delhi yesterday, who, sources said, has been silently drifting away from the party. The list gets longer with two more lawmakers from North Bengal.

The latest churnings come at a time when Trinamool chief and former chief minister Mamata Banerjee is in Delhi for a huddle with the Congress and other opposition allies part of the INDIA bloc.

Only a kilometre away from the above meeting venue, a closed-door meeting of the disgruntled MPs is underway - being attended by Sarmila Sarkar, Prasun Banerjee, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Jagdish Basunia, Kalipada Soren, and Arun Chakraborty.

With Banerjee preparing for multiple meetings in Delhi, the focus on Trinamool's internal rumblings is now expected to shift to the party's strength in the Parliament from the Bengal assembly.