Lucknow, June 9 (IANS) With reports that rebel Trinamool Congress MPs may meet Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Samajwadi Party spokesperson Udaiveer Singh on Tuesday alleged that the lower house’s presiding officer functions according to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s directions and lacks impartiality.

Talking to IANS, Udaiveer Singh said: “He is the BJP’s Speaker. The Speaker has no faith in impartiality. Everyone knows that he acts according to the signals he receives. These Speakers have not even upheld constitutional norms. I believe history will count them among the worst Speakers. That is why no one expects anything from them. They will act according to the BJP’s directions.”

Meanwhile, controversy intensified after senior Trinamool MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar reportedly claimed that nearly 20 Lok Sabha MPs had decided to support the NDA and conveyed their position to the Lok Sabha Speaker, a move that is being seen as a possible split in the party’s parliamentary unit.

The development comes shortly after the Trinamool faced internal turbulence in the West Bengal Assembly, where 58 of its 80 MLAs reportedly defied the party high command’s decision to appoint veteran leader Sovandeb Chattopadhyay as Leader of the Opposition and instead elected MLA Ritabrata Banerjee to the post, signalling widening cracks within the organisation.

The political turbulence that has gripped the Trinamool since its Assembly election debacle appeared to spill over to its parliamentary ranks on Monday, with a group of dissident MPs extending support to the NDA even as party supremo Mamata Banerjee was in Delhi attending an INDIA bloc conclave to chart a pan-India strategy against the BJP.

The Trinamool Congress currently has 28 Lok Sabha MPs, with one vacancy following the death of Basirhat MP Haji Nurul Islam.

The dramatic development marks the first major split in the party’s parliamentary wing since the Trinamool was founded.

–IANS

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