The Trinamool Congress’s Lok Sabha unit tottered on the precipice of a split on Monday after at least 14 lawmakers met in Delhi and discussed breaking away in the presence of Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari, the latest setback for the regional party after its humiliating loss in assembly polls last month.Roughly three kilometres from INDIA bloc meeting, the rebel TMC parliamentarians met at the house of BJP observer for Bengal polls Bhupender Yadav for two hours. (PTI Image)Roughly three kilometres away from where party chief Mamata Banerjee was attending a meeting of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), the rebel TMC parliamentarians met at the house of Union minister and BJP observer for Bengal polls Bhupender Yadav for two hours. In the evening, the group again met at the residence of four-time Birbhum MP Shatabdi Roy.The developments came hours after veteran TMC leader Sukhendu Sekhar Ray resigned from the Rajya Sabha, alleging “unbridled corruption” and “anarchical rule” of the party. The TMC delegation in the Bengal assembly has already suffered a split after 58 lawmakers last week backed rebel leader Ritabrata Banerjee, who staked claim to the Leader of the Opposition position.Also Read: ‘Vox populi, vox dei’: TMC MP resigns, cites RG Kar rape-murder case as Bengal crack reaches DelhiFunctionaries aware of developments said Adhikari was present at both meetings of rebel TMC MPs. “In the first meeting, the CM quipped that all of you are senior MPs but you have been badly treated by the TMC brass,” said one of the MPs.Barasat MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said the rebel group decided to support the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).“Nearly 20 TMC MPs, including me, have decided to support the NDA for Bengal’s development. We have decided to write to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and formally support the NDA,” said the four-term MP who resigned from all party posts last week.“The letter has already reached the speaker. We have sought separate seating arrangements as a separate bloc,” she added later in the evening.The rebels need at least 19 of the 28 Lok Sabha members of the TMC to escape anti-defection proceedings.Also Read: As TMC crack travels to Delhi, Mamata looks for warmth in INDIA situationship: Decoding the two meets todayA viral photograph of the first rebel MP meeting showed Coochbehar lawmaker Jagadish Basunia, Bankura MP Arup Chakraborty, Howrah MP Prasun Banerjee, Jhargram MP Kalipada Saren, Bolpur MP Asit Mal, Murshidabad lawmaker Abu Taher Khan and Sharmila Sarkar, MP from Burdhaman Purba. Dastidar and Roy were also present, said rebel leaders.Other MPs who attended this meeting were Khalilur Rehman (Jangipur), Deepak Adhikari (Ghatal), Bapi Haldar (Mathurapur) and Partha Bhowmick (Barrackpore). June Maliah, the MP from Medinipur, joined the second meeting, people aware of the matter said.At least eight TMC MPs were not present in the Delhi meetings. The list included floor leader and Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee, Sreerampur MP Kalyan Banerjee, Krishnanagar MP Mahua Moitra, Dum Dum MP Saugata Ray, Bardhaman-Durgapur MP Kirti Azad, Asansol MP Shatrughan Sinha, Jadavpur MP Sayoni Ghosh and Kolkata Uttar lawmaker Sudip Bandopadhyay.Two other party MPs, Yusuf Pathan and Rachana Banerjee ,reached Delhi in the afternoon. It was not immediately known which side four other MPs were aligned with.Moitra alleged Pathan was one of the rebels. “And @iamyusufpathan you are rushing to Delhi because @AmitShah has called you? Have some courage. You played for India. Our district voted you in with a huge margin. Have some shame & some spine,” she posted on X.Also Read: Phone calls, prayers, and a Kalighat meeting: Mamata fights to keep TMC hersAzad alleged that only 12-13 MPs had attended the rebel lawmakers’ meeting.“The fake and fabricated narrative of the dirty tricks department of BJP is giving numbers of 20 MPs.. There were 13 MPs 12 from Lok Sabha 1 from Raj Sabha attended the meeting at Bhupinder Yadav’s house. No one else has signed on the dotted line apart from these,” he said on X.Senior TMC MP Saugata Ray told HT, “I think it would be very difficult for them to attain 2/3rd majority. I was approached but I refused to switch sides.”Actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha told HT that he won’t switch sides and will continue to back Mamata Banerjee. Another party MP, Pratima Mondal, denied that she was in touch with the rebels. “I am in Kolkata with Mamata’s TMC,” she said.Former Lok Sabha secretary general PDT Achary said that the 2/3rd clause only applied if the MPs were merging with another party. “The law is very clear and the Supreme Court has also said that only for merger, the 2/3rd majority clause is applicable. There is no way that the speaker can recognise them as a separate group in the Lok Sabha.”Ghosh Dastidar blamed the TMC. “Things have been getting from bad to worse, and I have been with Mamata Banerjee for 40 years. She has been my guide, my mentor and my leader, and I have been with her even in the days when she was not in power. I have contested in five elections and lost before 2009. So it is useless to say that just because she is not in power in West Bengal, I have left,” she said.“Now the people’s verdict has proven what I am trying to tell you. So we want to work for the development of the state and for the national interest and the safety and security of the nation. That is why we want to work separately,” she added.This is the second big setback to Mamata Banerjee in two weeks. On June 3, 58 legislators of the TMC defied the party line in the Bengal assembly and supported expelled lawmaker Ritabrata Banerjee as the Leader of the Opposition. On Monday, former Kolkata mayor and prominent minority face Firhad Hakim appeared to join the rebel group.Also Read: Who is Ritabrata Banerjee? TMC MLA leading ‘rebel’ faction and likely to be Bengal LoPIf the TMC’s parliamentary party splits, it will help the BJP shore up numbers in the Lok Sabha where the Opposition was able to muster up enough strength earlier this year to block a constitution amendment bill that would have implemented women’s reservation and delimitation of seats.The TMC has been atrophying support since it lost power in West Bengal after 15 years in this summer’s assembly polls, where the BJP won 207 seats and the TMC won 80.In his resignation letter, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray blamed the party leadership. “The people have given huge mandate in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party for the first time in the history of the state to put an end to 15-year anarchical rule of the Trinamool Congress arising out of widespread unbridled corruption, abysmal failure in the field of health, education, industry, law and order, employment, etc.”“In respectful acceptance of this historic verdict of the people, I have resigned from the Rajya Sabha as a member and also from the primary membership of the All India Trinamool Congress,” he added.