The Congress on Monday accused Home Minister Amit Shah of masterminding the split in the Trinamool Congress, which is the third-largest Opposition party in the Lok Sabha, and of orchestrating the merger of the rebel group with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) to engineer a two-thirds majority for the NDA in the Lower House.

Congress general secretary (communication) Jairam Ramesh alleged that “decency, decorum, and devotion to constitutional values and principles remain vulnerable and threatened” every day that Mr. Shah continues in office.

“A desperate Union Home Minister — who is an absolute disgrace to the position once held by Sardar Patel — has taken Indian democracy to new lows in a shameless manner,” Mr. Ramesh said on X.

On Sunday, 20 rebel Trinamool Congress MPs met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and announced that they were merging with the NCPI, a Tripura-based registered, unrecognised political party.

Terming it an “illegal breakaway”, Mr. Ramesh pointed out that the NCPI is only a three-year-old political outfit that was hardly known. Though registered with the Election Commission in Tripura, it has not been recognised as a State party. The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Janata Dal (United), Mr. Ramesh said, should actually protest their “downgrade” through such “underhand tactics” and in such a “disgusting” manner, since the NCPI would now be the largest NDA ally.

“This bizarre move is part of the Union Home Minister’s strategy to engineer a two-thirds majority for the NDA in the Lok Sabha. Decency, decorum and devotion to constitutional values and principles remain vulnerable and threatened every day he continues in office,” Mr. Ramesh said.