The unexpected decision of rebel Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs to merge with the relatively unknown National Citizens Party of India (NCPI) has sparked intense political debate. The move potentially makes the group the fifth-largest bloc in the Lok Sabha, despite the NCPI being a registered but unrecognised political party until now.
According to sources, 20 TMC MPs informed Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla about their decision to merge with the NCPI. However, the Speaker's Office later confirmed that 19 MPs had attended the meeting.
Reacting to the development, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut alleged that the move had been orchestrated by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Calling it a "planned strategy," Raut said Amit Shah creates such parties and treats leaders "like slaves and pushes them into a well."
Raut further claimed that while the rebel MPs were expected to merge with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), they were instead pushed towards the National Citizens Party of India(NCPI).
According to him, the merger with another party would prevent the dissident lawmakers from staking a claim over the Trinamool Congress's name and election symbol.
"This same thing could have been done in Maharashtra as well, but the result here and in Bengal was different, and that's why we call the Shivsena, who claims it is illegal," Raut stated.
Drawing parallels with the split in the Shiv Sena, Raut alleged that the circumstances in West Bengal differed significantly from those in Maharashtra.
"There are more than 60 MLA's rebels from TMC. Those numbers were not with rebel Shivsainik, still they got the party symbol and name. Because TMC dont have a person like Eknath Shinde and they didn't have that much money, they could have got the TMC party name and Symbol," Raut alleged.
He also questioned the decision of the rebel MPs to align with a party that, according to him, had little political presence.
"The TMC leaders merged with a party that has no existence in the country," Raut said.
Meanwhile, the rebel camp maintained that it had the support of 20 MPs, with senior TMC leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay joining the group on Sunday.
Bandyopadhyay, the senior-most MP among the rebels, said that the merger with the NCPI was only a procedural step and that the group would eventually seek recognition as the real Trinamool Congress.
According to records available with the Election Commission of India, the NCPI was registered in January 2023. The party's office is located in Sankrail in West Bengal's Howrah district.
Ahead of the Speaker's meeting with the rebel camp, two MPs considered loyalists of TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee also met Om Birla and submitted a letter from Abhishek Banerjee.
The letter, sent by the party's leader in the Lok Sabha, urged the Speaker to continue treating the Trinamool Congress as a single entity represented by its authorised whip and leader, and requested that no separate faction be recognised.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Trinamool Congress won 29 seats. Following the death of Basirhat MP Haji Sheikh Nurul Islam in September 2024, the party's strength in the Lower House came down to 28.
