In a major blow to the Trinamool Congress in Tripura, the party's demand for the status of principal opposition in the state assembly has been quashed by Speaker Ramendra Chandra Debnath. The Trinamool Congress's demand was turned down by the Speaker as the party did not have the requisite strength to stake claim as the main opposition party. "Since Trinamool Congress has only six members in the sixty member house and was unable to achieve quorum, their claim was not entertained as per law," Debnath announced on Monday.
Elaborating on the issue, Debnath added that the two letters submitted by the Trinamool Tripura unit chairman Ratan Chakraborty referred to the salaries and allowances of Members of the Legislative Assembly (Tripura) Act of 1972 and 2008 for their claim for the Leader of Opposition (LoP) post. However, the act was limited to the purpose of determining salaries and allowances and not the LoP post, he said.
Stating that a quorum of atleast 10 MLAs was required for the position of LoP in the house, the Trinamool Congress was intimated of the decision on Monday. There are different rules for different Indian states and in Tripuras case, unless one-sixth of the house strength is present, a party cannot be offered the position of the LoP in the assembly, Debnath explained.
However, the Trinamool Congress has criticising the speakers decision. Party legislator Sudip Roy Barman said that it was a violation of the Act as the Trinamool had fulfilled the criteria by having the most number of members in the house among the opposition parties. The Trinammol Congress has six members in the Tripura assembly after six sitting Congress MLA's defected to the party in June this year. The Congress, which was the principal opposition till then now only has three MLA's.
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