India, June 19 -- The Trinamool Congress on Friday stepped up its battle against rebel Lok Sabha MPs, with party leader Abhishek Banerjee informing that Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has received 20 separate petitions seeking their disqualification under the anti-defection law.

The petitions come after the dissident MPs claimed they had merged with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) and sought recognition as a separate group in Parliament.

"Twenty people met the Speaker and claimed they should be treated as a separate group. Later, we got to know those MPs claimed to have joined another party, NCPI; nobody has heard the name of this group. Even they had not heard the name of this party," Banerjee said.

Invoking the anti-defect...