Mamata Banerjee has already lost control of the Legislature Party in Bengal after about 60 of the party’s 80 MLAs formed a separate bloc and elected Ritabrata Banerjee as their leader. (File Photo)Having secured the support of 20 of the 28 MPs of the Trinamool Congress, the rebel parliamentarians of the party met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla Sunday night and urged him to recognise them as a separate bloc. Minutes before the meeting, the Mamata Banerjee camp reached out to the Speaker and urged him not to accord “any recognition, status, or facility to any purported separate group or faction of the AITC”.Sources said veteran Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay was among the rebel MPs who met the Speaker. The rebel MPs went into a huddle at the official residence of Union Minister Bhupender Yadav, who was the BJP’s in-charge for the Bengal polls, before proceeding to meet the Speaker at his 20, Akbar Road residence.The rebel MPs want the Speaker to recognise them as a separate bloc and allow them to sit alongside the MPs of the ruling BJP-led NDA in the House. With the rebel MPs having met the Speaker, the split in the Lok Sabha wing of the Trinamool Congress is now formal. Mamata Banerjee has already lost control of the Legislature Party in Bengal after about 60 of the party’s 80 MLAs formed a separate bloc and elected Ritabrata Banerjee as their leader.Rebel leaders had earlier expanded on the reason for the sudden vertical split. Speaking to The Indian Express, Cooch Behar MP Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia had said: “Everything was fine when Mamata Banerjee was in control of the TMC. When the leadership went into the hands of Abhishek Banerjee, the party became some sort of a corporate entity. He treats leaders and workers like servants. Everyone is angry, be it MLAs or MPs. You have seen that three of the Rajya Sabha party MPs have quit already. He is not accessible, so everyone is angry.”On why the MPs want to align with the National Democraticc Alliance (NDA), Basunia said: “People have elected all of us to be MPs till 2029. In Bengal, the BJP has won. The BJP is already at the Centre. If we want to take up some developmental work in our constituencies, we need the support of the BJP. We are responsible to the people who elected us. We decided to form a faction so that we can do something for the people.”