Back home from London, Mamata Banerjee faces some housecleaning

The TMC leadership admitted their concern at the MLAs ignoring requests to attend Sessions regularly. “Nobody cares,” said a leader.

Worse, once the TMC Legislative Party had gone through the attendance register for March 20, it realised that many MLAs who had signed in had skipped the Session itself. Giving an idea of the party’s predicament, a senior MLA said: “These leaders are now claiming that they were present and even giving a vivid description of the proceedings!”

A senior legislator said: “Hardly 60 TMC MLAs were actually present (at all times) on March 20. We are lucky that the BJP staged a walkout from the Assembly. Otherwise, if they were present and had asked for a vote on finance Bills, we may have lost.”

The failure to get a finance Bill passed is technically considered a vote of no-confidence against the government.

TMC Chief Whip Nirmal Ghosh has reportedly asked the Speaker’s office for the final list of absentee MLAs. As of now, the party is scheduled to sit down with Mamata and discuss the matter on Saturday. However, the crackdown may get put off by a couple of days – giving the MLAs some reprieve.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay told The Indian Express: “I asked Ghosh for a report as to why a huge number of MLAs were absent on the last day of the Session despite a whip. We will discuss this in the party’s disciplinary committee after getting a report from Ghosh. Then the committee will decide action to be taken against those who were absent.”

A senior TMC leader said, “Eid is coming, and then Basanti Puja and Ram Navami. So, we think, after getting the CM’s advice, the leadership may take a decision only sometime in early April.”

Some MLAs have sent in their explanations about not being present, sources said, citing issues in the family to party responsibilities to illness.

North Bengal Development Minister Udayan Guha, who was among those absent, told The Indian Express: “I could not attend because of some family responsibilities, and had informed the party well in advance.”

Beleghata MLA Paresh Paul said: “I am seriously ill and bed-ridden. Everybody knows this in my party. I could not attend the entire Budget Session.”

Newly elected Sitai MLA Sangita Basunia said, “I was going for the Session on March 16, but fell down at the Cooch Behar platform and had to return home. Then I had a meeting of the Panchayat Samiti where I used to be the sabhapati on March 19. The samiti was to elect a new sabhapati. So I decided not to go to the Assembly. If the party asks, I will tell them.”

The party may have heard it all, though. In September 2023, facing a similar situation of absentee MLAs, the TMC had started keeping two attendance registers – one in the office of the Parliamentary Affairs Minister and the other in the Chief Whip’s room. It had also announced that a weekly attendance report would be sent to Mamata. The BJP had mocked the move as proof of the TMC’s “paranoia” about its MLAs’ loyalty.

In the two years since, the attendance registers have largely lost their meaning, admit party leaders, with MLAs signing them in the morning and then skipping the Session, just like on March 20.

BJP MLA Agnimitra Paul said they were not surprised: “The ruling party MLAs are not interested in participating in issues related to the development of the state. They are so busy siphoning money that they even ignore the whip of the leadership.”

The TMC will have that, and more, weighing on its mind. Elections are less than a year away, making the party’s hold on its MLAs tenuous. Plus, in 2023, the number of absentee MLAs the TMC was looking at was around 50 – half of now.