Tripura Assembly Speaker rejects TMC claim for LoP status

The Speaker of Tripura Assembly Ramendra Chandra Debnath has rejected the demand of Trinamool Congress (TMC) to grant status of the Leader of Opposition to its MLA Diba Chandra Hrankhawl on the plea that the party has no numerical strength.
"The numerical strength of the Opposition must be equal to the quorum to get the status of the Leader of Opposition, which means the Opposition should be at least ten in number to represent the House.
"As the strength of the TMC MLAs is less than ten in number no LoP status will be given to the party," the Speaker told reporters here today.

The six TMC MLAs, who switched sides from Congress in June, were recognised as TMC MLAs by the Speaker on August 29 citing rules and a Supreme Court verdict, but refused the main Opposition party status in the Assembly.
Soon after the TMC MLAs were recognised by the Speaker, chairman of the Trinamool Congress state unit Ratan Chakraborty wrote fresh letters demanding Leader of Opposition status to their senior MLA Diba Chandra Hrankhawl, who was appointed as the chief of the TMC legislature party.
"I have further studied the issue and TMC cannot be given the status of main Opposition party and thus, cannot be given the status of the Leader of Opposition from their party. According to the verdict of apex court and rules and practices of Lok Sabha and Tripura Assembly, TMC cannot get the Opposition party status in the House," Debnath said.

Chakraborty, however, said TMC was eligible to get the LoP status according to the legislative Assembly Acts of 1972 and 2008.
"We are consulting legal experts on this and might challenge the Speaker's verdict," he said.