NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will hear both sides in the Trinamool Congress split before deciding on a request by rebel MPs to merge their faction with the Nationalist Citizens Party (NCPI), ANI reported citing sources said.TMC sources, however, claimed that Abhishek Banerjee was not given a reasonable opportunity to present the party’s case. According to the sources cited by ANI, the Lok Sabha Speaker’s office emailed Abhishek Banerjee on June 15 at around 2pm, while he was undergoing questioning by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and did not have access to his phone or emails. The email reportedly asked him to appear before the Speaker in Delhi by 4pm the same day. TMC sources further said that within an hour of the email, party MP Kirti Azad received a call from the Speaker’s office informing him of the appointment. Azad subsequently visited the Speaker’s office and conveyed that Banerjee was cooperating with the ED investigation and would be unable to attend the meeting, while seeking a later date and time for the hearing.20 Lok Sabha MPs elected on the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) ticket had met Speaker Om Birla on Sunday and submitted a letter seeking recognition as a separate group. They expressed their intent to merge with the Nationalist Citizens Party and support the ruling NDA.Rebel MP, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, suggested that the faction would eventually seek legal recognition over the Trinamool Congress name. He argued that since the group represented more than two-thirds of the party’s parliamentary strength, it would pursue its claim through legal channels at a later stage.The move was strongly opposed by the TMC leadership. In a letter to the Speaker, Abhishek Banerjee urged him not to recognise any separate faction, asserting that the TMC remained a single and indivisible political party. He argued that no group of MPs could independently carve out a parallel faction within the party and seek separate recognition in Parliament. If eventually approved by the Speaker, the merger could significantly alter the political landscape in the Lok Sabha, reducing the TMC’s strength in the House and boosting the NDA’s numbers.