Late Sunday evening, a group of 20 rebel Trinamool Congress (TMC) Lok Sabha MPs announced their merger with the little-known Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI). The breakaway faction met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, sought recognition as a separate bloc in the House, and pledged support to the BJP-led NDA government.
The move catapulted the NCPI – a party with virtually no national political footprint – into the spotlight. The merger is now being seen as a smart strategic move by the ruling BJP to circumvent anti-defection provisions while enabling the rebel MPs to align with the NDA. The move not only deepened the crisis within the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC, or what is left of it, but also gave the BJP-led NDA a new ally.
Founded in 2020 by former Tripura minister Paban Kumar Das, the NCPI is a registered but unrecognised political party, according to reports. Initially conceived as a regional platform focused on tribal welfare, nationalism and governance reforms in the Northeast, it made its electoral debut in the 2023 Tripura Assembly elections, fielding candidates in a handful of constituencies. The party failed to win any seats and reportedly secured around 1,200 votes in total.
Its significance in the current context lies in the provisions of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution. Parliamentary rules do not recognise a simple ‘split’ within a political party. To avoid disqualification under the anti-defection law, a breakaway group must comprise at least two-thirds of a party’s legislators and merge with another political entity.
With 20 of the TMC’s 28 Lok Sabha MPs joining the rebellion, the faction comfortably crossed the required two-thirds threshold of 19 members. By merging with the NCPI, the MPs have sought legal protection for their parliamentary seats.
Political observers see the NCPI as a convenient legal and organisational vehicle rather than a long-term political destination. The rebels cannot immediately claim the TMC name or symbol. Instead, they are expected to argue before the courts and parliamentary authorities that, by virtue of their numerical strength, they represent the “real” TMC, similar to arguments advanced during the Shiv Sena split in Maharashtra.
The arrangement also helps the rebels avoid an immediate political backlash in West Bengal. A direct switch to the BJP could alienate sections of their voter base. By operating through a separate party, they can support Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government while retaining a distinct political identity.
For the BJP, the arrangement reduces friction within its West Bengal unit, where local leaders may resist the wholesale induction of former TMC rivals whom they were, until recently, fighting against. In that sense, the NCPI serves as a convenient vehicle for all concerned. It accommodates the rebel MPs, provides them with legal and organisational cover, and advances the BJP’s broader political objectives.