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The post-election Trinamool Congress (TMC) gives an impression that it is breaking up. In the West Bengal assembly, majority of its 80 MLAs have broken up with the party and the leader of the break-away group, another Banerjee has been recognised by the speaker as the leader of opposition. This leader, if media reports are true, has assured full support to the government.

It is a paradox and, in a sense, perfectly comical that a leader of opposition, who, under the relevant law, is the leader of the party in opposition to the government is assuring full support to the government. How can such a person become the leader of opposition?

Sir Ivor Jennings in his “cabinet government” says, “Attacks upon the government and upon individual ministers are the function of the opposition. The duty of the opposition is to oppose.” But in today’s India, a person who assures full support to the government becomes the leader of opposition.

This perhaps makes some sense when we consider what is happening to the TMC post its rout in the election. It is indeed very amusing to see the exodus of MLAs and MPs of this party in the direction of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which has now captured West Bengal, in such haste. They seem to be in a great hurry to be on the side of the ruling party. In this process, none of them seem to have given a moment’s thought to the law and the constitution which ultimately count when their action is judged by a court of law. 

But before we analyse the legal implications of the action of MLAs and MPs one more thing needs to be mentioned. The kind of exodus of MLAs and MPs of the TMC and the speed with which it has happened seems to be unprecedented even in the inglorious history of political defections in the country.

After all, many parties have lost badly in many elections in the past. The Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and many other parties have lost elections pretty badly at........

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