Trinamool Congress (TMC) dissident faction leader Sudeep Bandyopadhyay met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday after Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla agreed to a separate seating arrangement for the 20-member splinter group that recently parted ways with the Mamata Banerjee-led party.
The meeting came ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament, scheduled to begin on July 20. This event represents another important development in the political reorganization following the split within the Transitional Military Council.
The breakaway faction has also expressed interest in joining the Narendra Modi-led government and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
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The Speaker of Parliament grants separate seats to the rebel MPs
Bandyopadhyay, a senior Lok Sabha MP, met the Prime Minister after the Speaker agreed to the rebel MPs’ request to sit separately from the parent party in the Lok Sabha. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju also invited Bandyopadhyay to attend the all-party meeting on Sunday ahead of the monsoon session, news agency PTI reported.
Days earlier, 20 Lok Sabha MPs broke away from the Trinamool Congress after the party’s defeat in the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly elections.
The rebel legislators then joined the National Citizens Party of India (NCPI), a registered but unrecognized political party based in Howrah, West Bengal, and sought recognition as a separate parliamentary group.
While the Speaker has approved their request for separate seats in the House of Representatives, a final decision on recognizing their merger with NCPI has yet to be taken.
Officials said the matter is still under consideration.
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The recognition request is still pending
The splinter group has asked the Lok Sabha Speaker to formally recognize its merger with NCPI, which will determine its formal parliamentary status. However, the request has not yet been decided.
Earlier this week, on July 14, Sudeep Bandyopadhyay and fellow MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar met Speaker Om Birla to clarify the organizational structure of the new parliamentary group. Bandyopadhyay has been proposed as the floor chief, while Ghosh Dastidar has been appointed chief whip, PTI reported.
Saturday’s decision to allocate separate seats represents the first formal parliamentary recognition of the split, although it falls short of giving the group formal recognition under the banner of the Indonesian National Assembly.
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The rebel faction supports the National Democratic Rally
These developments also carry political significance ahead of the monsoon period, which will last from July 20 to August 13.
According to officials, the rebel MPs expressed their loyalty to the Narendra Modi government and indicated their willingness to become part of the NDA. Their participation in the all-party meeting on Sunday indicates their efforts to establish themselves as an independent political bloc in Parliament.
The Parliament Speaker’s decision on the pending recognition request is expected to determine the parliamentary identity of the rebel MPs in the coming weeks. The divide adds a new dimension to the political landscape of West Bengal and the evolving equations in national politics.
Also Read: TMC splits to consolidate NDA’s strength in Parliament as rebel MPs want to join BJP-led alliance
(With inputs from PTI)
