Meira relegates TMC to background

The Trinamool Congress with 19 Lok Sabha MPs -- until recently the biggest ally in the UPA coalition -- will not get front row seats in the house, Srinand Jha reports.

The Trinamool Congress with 19 Lok Sabha MPs — until recently the biggest ally in the UPA coalition — will not get front row seats in the house.

HT Image

Party demand for allotting at least one front row seat to its leader Sudip Bandopadhyaya was turned down by Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar last Friday.

In the re-allotment exercise finalised on Tuesday, five TMC members including Bandopadhyaya will continue to occupy their old seats. The remaining members have been allotted seats in the Opposition benches, or will sit along-side "friendly parties' of the UPA including the BSP and SP.

"Leaders of parties with much smaller numbers including the DMK, CPM and RJD — besides a former PM — are occupying the front row seats. But we are not protesting,” Bandopadhyaya told HT.

TMC, however, is peeved that the party demand for the allotment of a bigger office in the Parliament House complex has continued to hang fire for the last three and a half years.