What Is NCPI and Who Has Joined It? List of MPs Here
A breakaway faction of 20 rebel TMC Lok Sabha MPs, led by Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, has merged with the low-profile Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI). Representing two-thirds of TMC's strength, the bloc plans to support the NDA. First-time MP Saayoni Ghosh is tipped to lead the group in Parliament.
In a major political development, a breakaway faction of 20 rebel Trinamool Congress (TMC) Lok Sabha MPs has engineered a merger with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), a registered, unrecognised political party. The dissident camp, representing two-thirds of the TMC's parliamentary strength, met with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Sunday evening, June 14, to submit a formal representation requesting separate seating arrangements. The rebel faction has simultaneously declared its structural intention to align with and support the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the Centre.
The sudden shift has triggered a sharp response from the core TMC leadership, with parliamentary party leader Abhishek Banerjee urgently appealing to Speaker Birla to deny official recognition to the breakaway group. What Is NCPI? The Tripura-Based Party at the Heart of the TMC MPs’ Rebellion.
Rebel TMC MPs Meet Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla at His Residence in Delhi
Rebel TMC MPs met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla at his residence, in Delhi today
After meeting him, Rebel TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said, "We, the twenty MPs elected from the AITC, met the Speaker and submitted a letter requesting to sit separately; these twenty MPs constitute… pic.twitter.com/HTFttYCXdm
— ANI (@ANI) June 14, 2026
Names of 19 of the 20 Rebel Trinamool Congress MPs Out
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Key MPs Leading the Breakaway Faction
The legal and logistical manoeuvres of this political shift are being anchored by senior parliamentary figures from West Bengal. While the dissident group includes a total of 20 Lok Sabha members, the principal leaders fronting the public transition and high-level negotiations include:
- Sudip Bandyopadhyay: Veteran Lok Sabha MP and prominent parliamentary strategist orchestrating the faction's legal steps.
- Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar: Senior Lok Sabha MP who formally announced the group's strategic decision to merge with the NCPI and back the ruling alliance.
The dissident bloc includes several prominent TMC leaders, including Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Satabdi Roy, Rachna Banerjee, Saayoni Ghosh, Yusuf Pathan, Mala Roy, June Malia, Sudip Bandyopadhyay and others. Speaking to the Times of India, rebel MP Arup Chakraborty said that first-time MP Saayoni Ghosh is expected to lead the group in Parliament. "Saayoni Ghosh is our leader. Under the leadership of Bengal's CM, our double-engine government wants to work for the interest of the nation. If BJP asks for our help, we will help them. If we want their help, we will ask for it," he said.
Verification and Legislative Claims
According to the dissident camp, Speaker Om Birla verified the individual signatures of the 20 participating MPs during their Sunday evening meeting. While the shift provides immediate immunity from anti-defection proceedings due to meeting the required two-thirds threshold, the rebels indicated that this merger is a tactical, short-term measure before mounting a full claim over the original party identity. “Two-thirds MPs of TMC have given a letter to the Speaker for a separate seating arrangement. We will merge with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India and support the NDA,” PTI quoted rebel MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar as saying.
The faction plans to establish an independent block during the upcoming Lok Sabha session. They intend to formally claim the Trinamool Congress name and its twin-flowers symbol in July. “We have merged with the Nationalist Citizens Party…This is the system. When you leave with 2/3rd of the party, you cannot demand the name of that party on the first day itself… In July, we will make a demand to give us Trinamool. Then the court will decide. Court will decide later who is the real TMC,” Lok Sabha MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay told reporters.
Profile of the Nationalist Citizens Party of India
The NCPI is an unrecognised, registered political party with minimal electoral footprint, primarily known for limited past activity in Northeast India. During the 2023 Tripura Assembly elections, the party contested three seats under the campaign slogan, “to save your rights, reject political turncoats. Support social workers, not political personalities.” The party failed to win any seats in that cycle, with candidates finishing behind the "None of the Above" (NOTA) option or securing nominal vote margins. The party maintains its registered institutional address in Howrah, West Bengal, under the leadership of its president, Sheuli Kundu, an advocate practising at the Calcutta High Court. ‘We Will Work With NDA Under PM Modi’: Rebel TMC Faction Stakes Claim to More Than 2-3rd of Party Strength After Meeting Om Birla (Watch Video).
Local Realities and Regional Disbelief
The announcement of a national-level parliamentary merger caught the party's original base completely off guard. Past regional candidates expressed deep surprise regarding the entry of 20 Lok Sabha lawmakers into their low-profile organisational structure. Barjeda Tripura, a daily wage laborer who contested the Chawamanu seat in Tripura on an NCPI ticket and secured 536 votes, stated he had no prior inkling of the development. “I contested in 2023. What has happened three years later now? In 2023, a person called Krishna Debbarma had reached out to me about elections. So I contested. Many years ago, I was a supporter of the Congress,” he told PTI.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 15, 2026 02:11 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
