Allow BJP MLAs to sit together, WB party chief to ask speaker

West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh on Monday said he will meet state Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee to request him to allow the six party MLAs to sit together in the house.

These six legislators of the BJP had either won in the 2016 Assembly election or during bypolls later.

"The MLAs of Congress, CPI(M) are allowed to sit together but our MLAs are not. This is not right. I would meet the speaker and request him to make arrangements. It would help our MLAs for better coordination on the floor of the house," Ghosh said.

Besides these six who had won on BJP tickets, there are eight MLAs - seven from the TMC and one from the Congress - who had switched over to the BJP after the Lok Sabha polls.

The BJP is on a wait and watch mode over the issue of assembly membership of these eight.

"There are around 19 MLAs from the Congress and the CPI(M), who had switched over to the TMC since 2016 assembly polls. But they are yet to resign as MLAs. If they resign, we would also ask the TMC MLAs, who had joined our party, to resign. Till then we will keep a close watch on what the ruling party does," a senior BJP leader said.

The Trinamool Congress leadership is in a fix over deciding the fate of seven party MLAs, who have switched over to the saffron camp recently.

According to TMC sources, the party is yet to take a call on bringing these MLAs under the anti-defection law, as such a step would also force legislators of other parties who had crossed over to the TMC in the last few years, to lose their membership.

The BJP has asked TMC MLAs, who had defected to the BJP, to raise voice on the "misrule" prevailing in Bengal.

A special session of the West Bengal Assembly began on Monday and will continue till September 6.

Buoyed by impressive performance in the Parliamentary election when the BJP won 18 out of a total 42 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal, only four less than the TMC, the saffron party leaders have been asserting that their next target was to unseat the Mamata Banerjee government in the 2021 assembly polls.