NCPI, with 20 TMC rebels, set to debut in Parl as second biggest NDA partner
Times of India | 15 July 2026
Kolkata: The Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) is set to debut as the second biggest partner of the NDA in the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament.
Twenty rebel Trinamool Congress MP who joined NCPI — the youngest bloc in Lok Sabha — will meet speaker Om Birla
on July 19. They will also officially decide on their leader of the opposition (LoP), chief whip and deputy LoP, though there is consensus that Sudip Bandyopadhyay will be the leader of NCPI in Lok Sabha, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar the chief whip and Satabdi Roy the deputy leader.
“NCPI is also likely to take part in an all-party meeting on July 19 as well. Even though NCPI is a partner of NDA, it will continue to follow secular principles. There are three minority MPs in NCPI, which no other party in the NDA bloc has at the moment,” a source said.
Roy said on Tuesday they have not yet officially decided on the names for LoP, chief whip and deputy LoP. “It will be officially decided after a meeting on July 19. But the consensus is that people will retain their existing positions (before being removed). We
will also meet speaker Om Birla on July 19. The allotment of room in the new Parliament building will also be made official that day,” she said.
Bandyopadhyay was removed as TMC’s leader in Lok Sabha in Aug 2025 and replaced by the party’s national general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee. TMC replaced Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar with MP Kalyan Banerjee as the chief whip in May 2026.
Sources said Bandyopadhyay and Dastidar met Birla on Monday to discuss seating arrangements for the 20 MPs in the NDA bloc and allocation of party office in the new Parliament building. “The process of allocating a room has started,” a source said.
Bandyopadhyay also met Union home minister Amit Shah recently and it was their second meeting after the former joined
NCPI.
The meeting with the speaker assumes significance as Abhishek has submitted separate petitions to Birla seeking disqualification of the membership of each of the 20 MPs who joined NCPI. His argument was that according to the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, if a member associated with one party moves to another, his/her position as an MP will be revoked.
NCPI sources claimed that no discussions were held on these petitions during the meeting with the speaker on Monday.