New Delhi: The rebellion within the Trinamool Congress (TMC) escalated sharply on Sunday after a group of dissident MPs announced their merger with the Nationalist Citizens Party (NCP) and formally approached Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking separate seating arrangements in Parliament.

Addressing reporters after meeting the Speaker, rebel MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar claimed that the dissident camp represented more than two-thirds of the TMC's strength in the Lok Sabha and had submitted a letter requesting recognition as a separate group.

‘Two-thirds MPs of TMC have given a letter to the Speaker for a separate seating arrangement. We will merge with the Nationalist Citizens Party and support the NDA,’ she said.

The move marks a significant escalation in the internal crisis that has gripped the Mamata Banerjee-led party in recent days.

The rebel MPs have aligned themselves with the Nationalist Citizens Party, a registered but unrecognised regional party based in Tripura, and indicated their willingness to work alongside the NDA.

Senior TMC leader and Lok Sabha MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay, who is part of the dissident camp, confirmed that the merger process had already been completed.

He also asserted that the dispute over which faction represents the ‘real’ Trinamool Congress would ultimately be decided through legal channels.

‘The court will decide later who is the real TMC. We met the Speaker and gave him our request,’ Bandyopadhyay said, adding that the rebel group would stake a claim to the party's election symbol of two flowers.

The developments came amid a parallel effort by the faction led by TMC national general secretary and Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee to block any recognition of the breakaway group.

Earlier in the day, TMC leaders Kirti Azad and Sagarika Ghosh met Speaker Om Birla and submitted a letter from Abhishek Banerjee urging him not to recognise any separate faction within the party.

The letter argued that the Constitution and anti-defection provisions do not permit the formation of a separate group within an existing political party.

In the June 10 communication, which had already been sent to the Speaker via email, Abhishek Banerjee maintained that any attempt to carve out a separate bloc within the TMC would be contrary to the provisions of the anti-defection law.

The competing representations before the Speaker have set the stage for a political and legal battle over the future of the party's parliamentary unit, with both camps claiming legitimacy as the rebellion within the TMC continues to deepen.