Lok Sabha MPs Sudip Bandopadhyay and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, who left the Trinamool Congress and joined the Nationalist Citizens Party of India, have met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to discuss seating arrangements for the party's 20 MPs in the Lower House, sources said on Tuesday.
During the meeting on Monday, they also discussed the allotment of a party office in the new Parliament building, the sources said.
The meeting comes ahead of the Monsoon session of Parliament and amid the process of according parliamentary recognition to the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) as an ally of the BJP-led NDA.
Bandyopadhyay had also met Home Minister Amit Shah recently, a source said.
Sources said the party is expected to submit a formal communication to the Speaker's office for according parliamentary recognition to the NCPI. The leaders are also likely to join an all party meeting on July 19.
The meeting with the Speaker assumes significance as petitions have been filed by the Trinamool Congress seeking the disqualification of the 20 MPs, who have left the party and joined the NCPI.
Trinamool Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Abhishek Banerjee had met Birla and submitted 20 separate petitions seeking the disqualification of the rebel MPs under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.
Banerjee had argued that the MPs had voluntarily given up the membership of the Trinamool Congress by joining another party and were, therefore, liable to be disqualified.
He had also urged the Speaker not to accord any recognition, status or facility to any group claiming to be a separate faction of the party.
Sources added the issue of the disqualification of petitions did not come up during Monday's meeting with the Speaker.
(With inputs from PTI)