New Delhi: Leader of the breakaway faction of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the Lok Sabha, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, on Saturday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The visit comes on the day his group was given approval by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to sit separately from the parent party.
Bandyopadhyay was also invited by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju to participate in Sunday's all-party meeting ahead of the Monsoon Session of Parliament.
Days after the defeat of the TMC in the recently held West Bengal assembly elections, the 20 MPs broke away from the party and joined a little-known Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), a registered unrecognised political party headquartered in Howrah, West Bengal, and sought a separate seating arrangement.
They have urged the Speaker to recognise their merger with the NCPI.
On July 14, Bandyopadhyay and his colleague Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar met the Lok Sabha Speaker and conveyed that he will be the floor leader of the group and Ghosh Dastidar will be the chief whip.
On Saturday, the Speaker decided that the TMC rebel groups of 20 MPs will be seated separately, away from the parent party.
No final decision has been taken on the demand of the rebel TMC MPs to recognise them as part of the NCPI and the matter is still under consideration, officials said.
The rebel group also expressed their allegiance to the Narendra Modi government and expressed their desire to join the ruling NDA.
The monsoon session of Parliament will begin on July 20 and will continue till August 13.