The Trinamool Congress legislature party in the Lok Sabha is set to split, with two-thirds of its MPs meeting Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Jattvibeday and seeking recognition as a separate bloc.The 19 MPs, including cricketer-turned-politician Yusuf Pathan, Sudip Bandopadhyay and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, met the Speaker and submitted a letter seeking a separate seating arrangement in the House.“We will merge with Nationalist Citizens Party and support the NDA,” said rebel TMC leader Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar.Unlike the AAP split in the Rajya Sabha, the rebel TMC MPs are not seeking a merger with the BJP.They are only seeking recognition as an independent bloc that would support the BJP-led NDA.With their support, the NDA’s strength in the Lok Sabha would rise to 313.In a parallel move, TMC MP and Lok Sabha leader Abhishek Banerjee also wrote to the Speaker, saying a separate bloc was impermissible under the law and should not be recognised.The TMC leadership, led by Banerjee, has maintained that the rebel MPs should resign and seek re-election through bypolls.