Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has summoned both rebel Trinamool Congress MPs and the Mamata Banerjee faction for hearings before ruling on the rebels' bid to merge with the obscure Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI). This follows 20 TMC MPs submitting a letter claiming merger with the NCPI, a move the party's official leadership calls "misleading" and "undemocratic."

Off the Record

The real story isn't the legal maneuvering—it's the orchestrated pressure...