India, June 5 -- After 58 Trinamool Congress MLAs staked claim to become the principal Opposition party in West Bengal, vertically splitting the party, focus has shifted to the party's Parliamentarians, 28 in the Lok Sabha, and 13 in the Rajya Sabha.

Two senior leaders of the Ritabrata Banerjee-led group of the TMC claimed on Thursday that "majority of the Lok Sabha MPs" of Trinamool have opened "communication channels" with it . "More than two-third Lok Sabha MPs in TMC are talking to us," said a leader from Kolkata.

In the assembly, the group's numbers are large enough to be recognised as the party itself if it comes to that, given recent experience with the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party . There is also speculation that...