The Cooch Behar MP of the Trinamool Congress, Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia, said on Friday that 19 of the party's 28 Lok Sabha members signed a letter to the Speaker claiming that their bloc was the “original Trinamool”.

“Nineteen out of 28 MPs have signed in support of us. We have the majority and should be recognised as the original TMC. We also want separate seating arrangements in Parliament,” he said over the phone from Delhi.

His statement came on a day two Trinamool members in the Lower House attended an administrative review meeting chaired by chief minister Suvendu Adhikari.

The duo were Abu Taher Khan of Murshidabad and Khalilur Rahaman of Jangipur. They are reportedly among the rebel Trinamool dissidents led by Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar.

“Trinamool is passing through a difficult phase because of Abhishek Banerjee, and no corrective measures were taken to stop the party’s decline. This has led to protests and most MPs of our party are with us,” said Khan.

“A new government has been formed, and today we got the opportunity to directly communicate with the chief mininister,” he added.

Suvendu's review meeting on four districts — Malda, Murshidabad, North Dinajpur and South Dinajpur — saw the participation of unprecedented presence of lawmakers from the parties in the Opposition, which had never been witnessed for decades.

The four districts have 48 MLAs and among them, 22 each are from the BJP and the Trinamool Congress. Two are from the Congress, and one each from the CPM and the AJUP (Humayan Kabir).

Also, there are seven MPs — three each from the BJP and Trinamool and one from the Congress (Isha Khan Choudhury).

Those who attended the meeting said that all the 48 MLAs were present at the meeting, along with five MPs.

Yusuf Pathan, the Trinamool MP of Baharampur, was absent from the meeting. The other absent MP was Isha Khan Choudhury of the Congress.

MLAs like Abdur Rahim Boxi and Mohammad Motibur Rahman, who have not joined the rebel bloc, still attended the meeting.

“This was indeed a commendable gesture by the chief minister, and the spirit he displayed during the meeting deserves praise. He presided over the meeting with an open mind and listened to the suggestions made by the MLAs of the opposition parties,” said Boxi.