New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi covered 3.8 lakh kilometres in national and international travel since 2022, but couldn’t take a flight to Manipur, only 2,400 kilometres from the national capital—the jibe by Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Derek O’Brien summed up the party’s strategy to keep the pressure on Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah throughout the just-concluded budget session of Parliament.
TMC was the first to break ranks with the INDIA bloc during the winter session of the Parliament, as it decided to skip meetings of the coalition’s floor leaders to devise joint strategies to counter the central government.
While TMC sources insisted the move was necessary for the party to put forth an independent voice, speculation within the INDIA bloc suggested it was a “tactical” retreat by the Mamata Banerjee-led party to avoid protests against the Adani business conglomerate.
Left parties too alleged that TMC’s decision was part of a “tacit understanding” between Banerjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, aimed at shielding the party from action by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
TMC sources maintained that the party was not against raising the Adani issue, but it was the “unilateral approach” of the Congress that did not sit well with a lot of INDIA bloc partners. “The Congress announced without consulting the INDIA bloc allies that the Adani issue was the foremost on its agenda during the winter session. They also decided to press for a JPC probe into the Adani issue. That was not acceptable to TMC, which felt it was far more important to raise issues such as price rise that directly affects everyday lives. Also, TMC, which is not an electoral ally of the Congress unlike INDIA bloc parties, has not supported the demand for JPCs since 2011,” a senior TMC leader told The Print.
But the timing of TMC’s decision to stay away from INDIA bloc floor coordination meetings—coinciding with its campaign to get parties to endorse Banerjee as the leader of the coalition—did not go unnoticed.
During the budget session, the only time floor leaders of INDIA bloc met was on 1 April, a day before The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 was to be debated in the Lok Sabha.
But a closer look at TMC’s interventions in both Houses of Parliament during the two parts of the budget session—from 31 January to 13 February and 10 March to 4 April—shows that, despite keeping the INDIA bloc at arm’s length, the party did not dial down its anti-BJP rhetoric, while also managing to establish itself as a distinct voice of the Opposition.
From vociferously opposing amendments to the Waqf Act, 1995 to questioning PM Modi’s decision not to visit strife-torn Manipur, confronting Union Home Minister Amit Shah to criticizing the Union Budget, TMC mounted a multipronged attack on the ruling BJP in Parliament.
“It’s not just us. Even MPs from other parties such as the Congress and the DMK came to us and acknowledged the fact that our interventions stood out in the House. It was a reflection of the amount of homework that every TMC MP put in before speaking on any issue. The party’s research cell came in handy as well. The idea was to give every MP a chance to shine and not just the already popular faces,” a senior TMC leader told ThePrint.
TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose told ThePrint that the party’s research cell, made up of graduates from prestigious law schools, also helped the MPs fine tune their speeches and pack them with data.
“I wrote my own speeches. But the law school graduates we have are all top of the line. We also ensured the each and every MP gets a chance to speak,” Ghose said.
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TMC’s budget session strategy
Participating in the general discussion on the budget in the Lok Sabha, TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee had accused the BJP-led NDA of practicing “economic favouritism”.
“It means that the BJP has mastered the art of taking from the poor and giving it to the wealthy elite. For instance, the waiving of corporate loans while the poor farmers are left to suffer. The government claims to have no money to increase subsidies on essential commodities yet it slashes corporate tax rates giving billionaires a bigger slice of the pie. This is not economic justice. This is economic favouritism at its worst,” Abhishek said.
Also, as part of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) examining The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, TMC MPs Kalyan Banerjee and Nadimul Haque submitted a voluminous dissent note opposing, among others, the provision that only persons “showing or demonstrating that he/she is practicing Islam for at least five years, of any movable or immovable property, having ownership of such property and that there is no contrivance involved in the dedication of such property” be allowed to dedicate any movable or immovable property as waqf.
Banerjee and Haque wrote that if no person can be compelled to practice his own religion, then such persons cannot be debarred either to offer his property to God whether he is Hindu or Muslim or any other religion.
“Practicing religion means day to day performing of his religious duty. In a secular democratic country like us no one can be compelled to perform any religious duty. If such a provision cannot be made either in the Constitution or in any other Statute no mandatory provision can be made for practicing Islam for at least 5 years for making waqf,” they wrote.
On 17 March, during a discussion on The Manipur Appropriation Bill, 2025, TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev questioned BJP’s “double-engine” narrative, particularly in light of the volatile situation in the northeastern state.
“The people of Manipur gave the PM a ‘double-engine’ government in both 2017 and 2022. But what has this ‘double-engine’ government given to the people of Manipur? The state is burning, and today we expected you would not give us a run-of-the-mill budget. It was a golden opportunity for PM Modi to vindicate himself,” Dev said, demanding a special financial package for Manipur.
Matters came to a head on 19 April, when TMC Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale, while delivering his speech in a debate on the working of the Ministry of Home Affairs, targeted Amit Shah, making certain remarks that were later expunged. The Treasury benches erupted in anger over his remarks, demanding an apology, but the TMC leader refused to back down.
Even on the penultimate day of the budget session, TMC Rajya Sabha floor leader O’Brien took a swipe at Modi, claiming that the Prime Minister had covered a total of 3.8 lakh kilometres in national and international travel since 2022—“the distance between Earth and the Moon”—but couldn’t find the time to travel to strife-torn Manipur.
At the same time, Trinamool also managed to get the Congress, among other opposition parties, to join forces with it in raising the issue of alleged irregularities in voter lists.
The Congress even issued a statement calling the TMC’s revelations “shocking” and “clear evidence” that BJP “wins or attempts to win elections by manipulating voter lists in connivance with the Election Commission”.
On the last day of the budget session, however, the TMC faced heat from the BJP following the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the April 2024 verdict of the Calcutta High Court invalidating the appointment of 25,753 teachers and other staff in state-run and state-aided schools, deeming the entire selection process “vitiated and tainted”.
As a result, Rajya Sabha proceedings had to be adjourned twice, with NDA MPs seeking to corner the TMC over the issue ahead of the West Bengal assembly elections due to be held in 2026.
This is an updated version of the report
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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