Agartala, December 10 (IANS): Four months after six axed Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLAs joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the lawmakers were recognised as saffron party legislators in the Tripura Assembly on Sunday, Speaker Ramendra Chandra Debnath announced. "The six axed TMC MLAs have been given recognition as BJP legislators. They would not get any extra facilities or benefits as BJP lawmakers," the speaker told IANS. "After receiving a letter on November 8 signed by the six MLAs requesting me to recognise them as BJP legislators, I sent a 14-day notice to the TMC chairperson. As there was no reply or objection, I gave them the recognition." Led by Sudip Roy Barman, five lawmakers - Ashish Kumar Saha, Diba Chandra Hrangkhawl, Biswa Bandhu Sen, Pranjit Singh Roy and Dilip Sarkar - accompanied by hundreds of former Trinamool Congress leaders and workers joined the BJP on August 7. On Saturday, Assembly Secretary Bamdeb Majumder issued a common letter to the six MLAs about the speaker's recognition. The issue shook the house during the last session of the Tripura Assembly on November 14 when Barman accused Debnath of giving them recognition. The speaker said that he had told the 6 MLAs that due to lack of time before the 2-day assembly session, it was not possible to complete the formalities to officially recognise them as BJP MLAs. After the recognition of the six legislators as BJP members, the Tripura Assembly got its first BJP members since it got a legislative body - a 32-member Territorial Council 60 years ago in 1957.
