Image: PTI

NEW DELHI: Things are heating up in Delhi with TMC on Tuesday fielding its senior leaders Kalyan Banerjee and Kirti Azad to take on dissident MPs and questioning the claim made by rebel MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar of having support of 20 MPs and to have written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking recognition as a separate parliamentary bloc that would back the NDA.Demanding that the letter claiming support of 20 MPs should be placed in public domain, Banerjee challenged all dissident MPs to resign from TMC and join BJP.“Those who went to Union minister Bhupender Yadav’s residence and held meetings with West Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari have effectively become BJP. Today, their leader is Narendra Modi. If anyone has political morality, they should resign from Parliament and seek a fresh mandate from the people,” Banerjee and Azad said at a press conference held in Delhi on Tuesday morning.Amid all the speculation and a day after the INDIA bloc meeting, TMC chairperson Mamata Banerjee met Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi at 10 Janpath in what was seen as Banerjee’s attempt to further build on efforts to rally support as her party faces its worst crisis. During the INDIA bloc meeting too on Monday, visuals of Sonia and Banerjee hugging each other and sharing a warm interaction were shared by Congress. Banerjee had urged all the constituents to forget the past and stand united.While no details of Tuesday’s meeting were shared by either party, sources said Banerjee went into the meeting keen to share with Sonia the TMC’s challenges during elections, her views on the future strategy for West Bengal and ways to strengthen the INDIA alliance and opposition unity. These issues figured in the discussions, sources said.Earlier at the press conference, Kalyan Banerjee said rebel MPs should follow the example of former TMC MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, who resigned who resigned from the Upper House and the party on Monday after levelling allegations against the TMC.“If the rebel MPs claim they have the numbers required under the Tenth Schedule, then why have they not formally merged with the BJP? The truth is that BJP has not officially accepted them despite their efforts to align with it,” the TMC leaders said.Accusing senior BJP leaders, including home minister Amit Shah, of “actively working to break the Trinamool Congress” Kalyan Banerjee said that he spoke to TMC MP Yusuf Pathan on Monday and claimed that Pathan himself confirmed to him that Amit Shah called him and asked him to come to Delhi for a meeting. “This clearly shows an attempt to engineer defections and weaken the opposition,” Banerjee alleged.Meanwhile, as media camped outside her residence in Delhi, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar who is being seen at the forefront in the dissident camp, refrained from making any statements on what lies ahead and the letter.In a post on X, TMC’s Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’ Brien said, “exactly at the same time as Mamata Banerjee was having a meeting in Delhi with Sonia Gandhi in Delhi, CID was forcefully trying to enter the TMC party headquarters adjoining her residence in Kolkata.”“First loot vote, now loot files of a political rival. Democracy? ,” he added.