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NEW DELHI: Things are heating up in Delhi with TMC on Tuesday fielding Kalyan Banerjee and Kirti Azad to take on dissident MPs and questioning the claim made by rebel MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar of having the support of 20 MPs and having written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking recognition as a separate parliamentary bloc that would back NDA.Demanding that the letter claiming support of 20 MPs should be placed in public domain, Banerjee challenged all dissident MPs to resign from TMC and join BJP.“Those who went to Union minister Bhupender Yadav’s residence and held meetings with Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari have effectively become BJP. Today, their leader is Narendra Modi,” Banerjee and Azad said at a press meet in Delhi on Tuesday.“If the rebel MPs claim they have the numbers required under the Tenth Schedule, then why have they not formally merged with the BJP? The truth is that BJP has not officially accepted them despite their efforts to align with it,” they said.Amid all the speculation and a day after the INDIA bloc meeting, TMC’s Mamata Banerjee met Congress parliamentary party chairperson Sonia Gandhi at 10 Janpath in what was seen as Banerjee’s attempt to further build on efforts to rally support as her party faces its worst crisis.While no details of Tuesday’s meeting were shared by either party, sources said Banerjee went into the meeting keen to share with Sonia the TMC’s challenges during polls, her views on the future strategy for Bengal and ways to strengthen the INDIA bloc.
