The rebel and majority bloc within the Trinamool Congress Parliamentary team in the Lok Sabha, under the leadership of two four-time Lok Sabha members, Dr Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Satabdi Roy, has decided to join the Tripura-based Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) instead of pursuing the much-discussed possibility of forming a separate bloc of the Trinamool Congress Parliamentary Party in the Lower House of Parliament.
The rebel MPs made an official request in this regard by submitting a letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker on Sunday. “We will work with the NDA under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the interest of the country,” Ghosh Dastidar said while confirming the decision of the rebel MPs to join the NCPI.
Confirming the development, Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member from Bankura, Arup Chakraborty, told media persons that the NCPI would set up offices across West Bengal. The NCPI was formed in 2022. The party has offices in Assam, Tripura and West Bengal.
It also has an office in Bankra in Howrah district adjoining Kolkata. The rebel MPs have decided to join the relatively lesser-known political outfit. Earlier, the rebel MPs had indicated that they would form a separate bloc within the Trinamool Congress in the Lok Sabha, similar to the arrangement made in the West Bengal Assembly, and thereafter appeal for support to the NDA.
However, amid these developments on Sunday, Trinamool Congress General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee wrote to the Lok Sabha Speaker urging that any new bloc within the Trinamool Congress should not be granted recognition, arguing that elected MPs of the party could not function independently of the policy decisions of the party they represent.
Subsequently, 20 MPs from the party's rebel camp reportedly met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and submitted a resolution expressing their decision to join the NCPI and support the NDA. A few days ago, speculation surfaced that Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee might merge the party with the Congress.
Amid such speculation, the rebel MPs made their move. Political observers believe the rebels have chosen to join another political party en bloc to avoid potential legal complications. The rebel camp also announced that NCPI offices would be opened across West Bengal.
Currently, the Trinamool Congress has 27 members in the Lok Sabha. The Basirhat seat in North 24 Parganas district remains vacant following the death of Trinamool Congress MP Haji Sk. Nurul Islam in September 2024, just a few months after his election.
Since more than two-thirds of the Trinamool Congress MPs in the Lok Sabha have turned rebel and decided to join another party, the provisions of the anti-defection law may not apply to them.