NCPI: The 6-yr-old Tripura party registered in Hwh is now NDA’s 2nd biggest member
Times of India | 15 June 2026
Agartala: The only Bengal link of the Nationalist Citizens' Party of India (NCPI), oddly, is its Howrah address. Interestingly enough, the six-year-old Tripura-based party, registered in Howrah's Sankrail, is now tipped to be BJP's biggest coalition partner with 20 MPs.
TDP has 16 MPs in Lok Sabha and JD(U) 12.
Formed in 2023, the party's election symbol is pen nib with seven rays and has some Tripura and Meghalaya footprint. However, it has never been able to gain enough popularity, and has faced rejection from major parties as well as regional outfits like TIPRA and IPFT. In Tripura, Shantanu Saha manages the party, while Howrah's Tarun Kumar Roy is allegedly involved in its operations.
In the 2023 Tripura elections, NCPI fielded three candidates — Jahangir Ali from Kailashahar in Unakoti district, Barjeda Tripura from Chawmanu, and Krishna Kumar Debbarma from Ambassa. Despite this, it has remained an almost non-existent entity.
Now, suddently, NCPI will bring into the NDA fold six woman MPs (Saayoni Ghosh, Satabdi Roy, Rachna Banerjee, June Malia, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, and Mala Roy) and three Muslim MPs from Murshidabad (Khalilur Rahman, Abu Taher and Yusuf Pathan).
When asked about the road ahead, Satabdi Roy told reporters in Delhi, "We have merged with NCPI. We will decide our strategy over time." Bankura MP Arup Chakraborty said party offices will now be opened across Bengal.
Veteran MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay, however, suggested that joining NCPI would be a stopgap measure, as the rebel bloc has not entirely abandoned its plans to stake a claim to be "real Trinamool". Speaking to the media after meeting Speaker Om Birla, Bandyopadhyay said on Sunday, "We have joined NCPI. It is a recognised regional party... We have merged with it... When two-thirds of the party leaves, you cannot demand the party's name on the first day itself. When Parliament session commences in July, the other group (Mamata loyalists) will come as Trinamool and we will make a demand to have the TMC identity. In my experience... Trinamool symbol might be frozen."
TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh reacted by saying, "We do not know which party they are going to join or with whom they are aligning. But the people here were Mamatadidi's candidates, and they won on anti-BJP votes. The voters who sent them to Parliament voted against the BJP. If they are now joining the BJP camp, it is nothing short of a complete betrayal. A betrayal of every single voter."
(Written with additional inputs from Dipawali Mitra in Kolkata)