After days of speculation, 20 rebel Trinamool Congress MPs on Sunday met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla at his residence in New Delhi and submitted a letter announcing their decision to merge with the National Citizens Party of India (NCPI).

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The decision by the rebels to merge with a registered regional political party rather than form a separate bloc within the Trinamool Congress was to avoid any legal complications under the anti-defection law. The law states that when two-thirds of the legislators of a political party decide to merge with another party, neither those who join the new party nor the ones who stay with the original party face disqualification.

“The MPs met the Speaker and requested separate seating arrangements. We are more than two-thirds of MPs (of the Trinamool Congress) and will merge with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India. We will work with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the NDA for the interest of the country,” Dr. Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar told media persons after the meeting.

The office of the Speaker confirmed that 19 MPs attended the meeting. The rebel faction, however, claims the support of 20 MPs, with Sudip Bandyopadhyay joining the group on Saturday.

Mr. Bandyopadhyay, the seniormost MP in the rebel camp, said that while the MPs are merging with the NCPI as of now, in July, when the Parliament session begins, they would seek recognition as the Trinamool Congress since they have a two-thirds majority.

“We will merge with the Nationalist Citizens Party, which is a registered regional party. This is the system. When you leave with two-thirds of the party, you cannot demand the name of that party on the first day itself. In July, we will seek recognition as the Trinamool Congress since we have two-thirds of its MPs. Then the courts will decide,” Mr. Bandyopadhyay said.

According to the Election Commission of India, the Nationalist Citizens Party of India was registered on February 2, 2023, with its registered office at Sankrail in West Bengal’s Howrah.

After the defeat of the Trinamool Congress in the 2026 Assembly polls in West Bengal, the majority of its Lok Sabha MPs had decided to set up a separate bloc and held meetings at the residence of Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Bhupendra Yadav.

On Sunday, the majority of MPs had gathered at Mr. Yadav’s residence before meeting the Speaker. The decision to merge with an almost unknown regional party has come as a surprise in political circles.

Before the rebel MPs met the Speaker, two MPs considered loyalists of Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee also met Mr. Birla and submitted a letter from Abhishek Banerjee. The letter from the party’s leader in Lok Sabha urged the Speaker to treat the Trinamool Congress as a single party represented by its authorised whip and leader and urged him not to recognise any separate group.

“I respectfully request that you may be pleased to place this submission on record; treat the AITC as a single political party represented in the House solely through its duly authorised Leader and Whip, and decline to accord any recognition, status, or facility to any purported separate group or faction of the AITC,” the letter said, adding that the Speaker should accord the AITC an opportunity of being heard before any decision is taken. 

In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Trinamool Congress won 29 seats. Basirhat Trinamool Congress MP Haji Sheikh Nurul Islam passed away in September 2024, bringing the party’s strength in the House to 28.

The eight MPs who have remained loyal to Ms. Banerjee are Abhishek Banerjee, Kalyan Banerjee, Saugata Roy, Mahua Maitra, Kirti Azad, Shatrughan Sinha, Pratima Mondal and Sajda Ahmed.

Prior to the rebellion by the Lok Sabha MPs, about 60 of the 80 Trinamool Congress MLAs broke ranks with the party leadership and put their weight behind expelled Trinamool MLA Ritabrata Banerjee, who was subsequently elected the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly.