Will TMC rebel group get recognition in Lok Sabha? Speaker may hear both sides, likely to seek legal opinion

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will hear the 20 defected TMC MPs as well as the faction led by Mamata Banerjee before deciding on giving recognition to the breakaway faction, sources told news agency PTI.

Birla is likely to seek legal opinion

Earlier, sources in Parliament told PTI that Speaker Om Birla is likely to seek legal opinion on the defection of the leaders' demand to be recognised as a separate group after a proposed merger with the little-known Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI).

Around 20 TMC MPs announced they were merging with the NCPI and said they would later stake a claim to be recognised as the "real TMC".

Any decision on the group's demand will be taken before the Monsoon Session of Parliament, which usually commences in the third week of July, sources were quoted by PTI as saying.

A decision on whether the breakaway faction will receive recognition will be based on the Union law ministry's written opinion, issued after consultation with a senior law officer.

The legal opinion will be sought so that the Speaker's decision, if challenged in court, can withstand judicial scrutiny, sources told PTI.

The crisis in the TMC deepened on Sunday as the defected MPs announced their merger with the NCPI and met Birla seeking a separate seating arrangement in the Lower House.

After the meeting, defected MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said 20 party MPs had signed the representation submitted to the speaker.

"Two-thirds of TMC MPs have given a letter to the speaker for a separate seating arrangement. We will merge with the Nationalist Citizens Party and support the NDA," she said.

The NCPI registered itself as a political party in January 2023, with a building in Sankarail, West Bengal's Howrah district, as its address in the ECI records, and has a little footprint in national politics.

Abhishek called to meet Om Birla

Sources from the Mamata-led TMC told news agency PTI that its leader, Abhishek Banerjee, was called for a meeting with Speaker Birla on two hours' notice, even as the Enforcement Directorate was still questioning him on Monday.

Banerjee got an email from the Speaker's office at around 2 pm on Monday, PTI quoted TMC sources as saying.

The office asked Banerjee to meet Birla at 4 pm.

Soon after, the Speaker's office called party MP Kirti Azad and told him about the email.

In response, Azad informed the Speaker's office that Banerjee was "committed to cooperating with all investigative agencies" and was cooperating with the investigation at the ED office in the CGO complex in Kolkata, sources said.

Later in the day, Azad also met the Speaker to inform him about the email.

The sources added that Banerjee returned after questioning only around midnight.