NEW DELHI: The Trinamool Congress crisis deepened on Friday as dissident MPs prepared to approach Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking recognition as the party’s “real TMC” parliamentary group.According to PTI, rebel MP Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia said the dissident faction had already submitted a representation to the Speaker and would formally stake its claim next week. “We have submitted the letter… On Monday, we will go to the Speaker and stake our claim to form the real TMC parliamentary group. We will ask the Speaker to give recognition to our claim,” Basunia told PTI Videos.The Cooch Behar MP, who is among lawmakers seeking to support the NDA in the Lok Sabha, claimed that 19 MPs had signed the representation. He said the process of collecting signatures began on June 8. Sources, however, said the timing of the proposed meeting with the Speaker had not yet been finalised.A purported list carrying the names and signatures of 19 TMC Lok Sabha MPs was circulated online, although the alleged letter to Speaker Om Birla was not publicly available and could not be independently verified. Dissident leaders claimed the document reflected support for their move.Basunia also rejected allegations by TMC MP Kirti Azad that lawmakers were being induced to switch sides. “Kirti Azad is a liar. This is not right to say. We are 19 MPs and he is also an MP… it is not right to make such allegations,” he said.Meanwhile, Azad accused the BJP of attempting to engineer defections through “Operation Lotus”. In a post on X, he cited the resignation of Rajya Sabha MP Prakash Chik Baraik, meetings involving dissident MPs and BJP leaders, and recent political outreach efforts as evidence of “an organised attempt” to weaken the party.“Operation Lotus under the guidance of (Home Minister) Amit Shah is underway,” Azad said, while claiming that the effort had failed so far.The crisis follows TMC’s defeat in the West Bengal assembly elections and has since spread to Parliament. On Thursday, Prakash Chik Baraik became the third TMC parliamentarian this week to resign from both the party and the Rajya Sabha, after Sukhendu Sekhar Ray and Sushmita Dev.
