Agartala, September 12 (IANS): The Speaker of the Tripura Assembly on Monday rejected the Trinamool Congress' (TMC) latest demand for the status of main opposition party in the assembly. "I studied the TMC (Tripura unit) chairman Ratan Chakraborty's two fresh letters demanding recognition of the party as main opposition party in the state assembly. According to the Supreme Court verdict, Lok Sabha's act and Tripura Assembly's rules, the TMC cannot get the opposition party status in the house," assembly Speaker Ramendra Chandra Debnath told reporters. He said: "The TMC in their letters referred to the Tripura acts of 1972 and 2008. Both the acts are relating to salaries and allowances of members of the assembly." According to the same procedures, Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan had rejected the Congress' demand for recognition of the party as main opposition party and offering the post of Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha to Mallikarjun Kharge." Kharge is the Congress' floor leader in the Lok Sabha. TMC leader Chakraborty in his letters to the speaker requested him to recognise the TMC as main opposition party and to grant status of Leader of Opposition (LoP) to the party's newly-elected legislature party leader Diba Chandra Hrangkhawl as the party has the "required strength in the assembly". After three-month-long parleys six legislators were recognised as TMC MLAs by the assembly speaker on August 29. The Speaker while recognising the TMC legislators, citing rules and Supreme Court verdict, had refused to give opposition party status to the TMC in the assembly. A TMC leader on condition of anonymity hinted that the party is likely to seek the Governor or the court's intervention as the speaker neither granted LoP status nor recognised it as the main opposition party in the house. The six MLAs, led by former opposition leader Sudip Roy Barman, quit the Congress on April 7 and joined the TMC on June 7 in protest against the Congress' alliance with Left parties ahead of the West Bengal Assembly elections in April-May.
