AGARTALA, Aug 2 (TIWN): Assembly Speaker Ramendra Chandra Debnath on Tuesday confirmed that he will take the final decision onAugust 6 regarding the six Congress defectors.

Final decision on the issue of six Congress legislators who have joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) will be taken of August 6, confirmed assembly speaker.

Four Congress MLAs earlier met speaker in the month of June and submitted a letter with their signatures as well as those of two others. They said they have joined the Trinamool Congress and demanded recognition as the main opposition party.

However, accordingly the assembly speaker called upon the six MLAs for individual hearing and verification of their signatures. After consulting the rules and experts, speaker confirmed that the final decision will be announced on August 6.

Besides suspended Congress leader Sudip Roy Barman, other Congress legislators who are said to have signed the letter are Ashish Saha, Biswabandhu Sen, Diba Chandra Hrangkhawl, Pranjit Singha Roy and Dilip Sarkar.

TMC’s Tripura unit president Ratan Chakraborty, a minister in the Congress-led state government during 1988-1993, warned that if the Speaker did not recognise his party as the main opposition party in the assembly and the six rebel Congress legislators as TMC legislators, they will seek the governor’s intervention.

A TMC delegation  earlier also met Governor Tathagata Roy and apprised him of the political development in Tripura.

Roy Barman along with other party leaders resigned from the Congress to protest the party’s electoral alliance with Left parties in West Bengal.

With these resignations, the Congress’ strength in the Tripura assembly has been reduced to the lowest ever three from 10 in the 60-member House. The ruling CPI-M-led Left Front has 50 lawmakers.