Twenty rebel Trinamool Congress MPs who aligned themselves with the NCPI have sought an additional 15 days to respond to notices issued by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on a petition seeking their disqualification under the anti-defection law, parliamentarian Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said on Thursday.
The request comes as the deadline given to the MPs to submit their replies ends on October 8.
Ghosh Dastidar, who is among the 20 MPs, said they were yet to collate all the documents needed to prepare their response and had therefore sought an extension from the Lok Sabha secretariat.
“Our deadline to send a reply is about to end today. We are writing to the Lok Sabha Speaker requesting 15 days more time,” Ghosh Dastidar told new agency PTI.
The Lok Sabha secretariat had given the MPs until October 8 to respond to the notices issued following a petition seeking action against them under the anti-defection provisions.
The MPs’ legal team could not complete the response before the deadline, prompting them to seek additional time.
The rebel MPs have maintained that their decision to leave the TMC and align with the NCPI does not attract disqualification under the anti-defection law.
The 20 MPs are also scheduled to hold an urgent meeting in Kolkata at 3 pm on Thursday to discuss the notices and decide their next course of action, Ghosh Dastidar said.
(With inputs from PTI)