A day after 20 Lok Sabha MPs of the Trinamool Congress decided to merge with a little known Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), the party in a social media post claimed that it has become the largest parliamentary force in West Bengal.

“With 20 Lok Sabha seats, NCPI emerges as the largest parliamentary force from West Bengal shaping the state’s voice at the national level. The numbers speak for themselves...” a Facebook post by the NCPI claimed. According to the post, the number of MPs with NCPI are 20, while the BJP has 12, Trinamool Congress has eight and the Congress has one in the Lok Sabha. The party also posted photographs of rebel Trinamool MPs with the symbol of the party.

20 rebel MPs of the Trinamool Congress have announced their decision to merge with NCPI. The MPs met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla in Delhi on Sunday (June 14, 2026) and submitted a letter to that effect.

According to the information given on the Facebook page of NCPI, the head office of this political party is located in Hatgachha village under Sankrail police station area of Howrah. The Facebook page was created in the early hours of Monday (June 15, 2026). The party is being administered by a couple Uttiyo Kundu and his wife Shewly Kundu. The green and saffron party office in rural Howrah saw the deployment of police and central forces outside the office on Monday (June 15, 2026).

According to locals Shewly Kundu, who hails from Hatgachha village runs a voluntary organisation with her husband Uttiyo Kundu. Locals said that NCPI has had an office in Hatgachha since 2022 and fielded candidates in the panchayat elections in 2023. However, the party did not field any candidates in the Lok Sabha polls in 2024 and 2026 Assembly elections.

A few functionaries who were associated in the past said that they were completely in the dark as far as developments of merging of Trinamool Congress MP was concerned.

“Uttiyo Kundu and Shewly Kundu are in Delhi. Their phones have been switched off since last night. We have learnt that they are in Delhi. Nobody else in the party has any idea about the development. We started as a small party. Our organisation was never in touch with BJP. But, it seems some people, as individuals, were in regular touch with BJP,” Titas Bhattacharya, who claimed to be the general secretary of the party, said.

The NCPI registered itself on February 2, 2023 at Jago Biswa building at Sankrail in West Bengal’s Howrah, as Election Commission of India’s (ECI) data suggests. They were also allotted the symbol of a foundation pen by the ECI. Three NCPI candidates had contested assembly elections in Tripura and secured 822 votes.

Trinamool Congress MLA Kunal Ghosh, who is considered a loyalist to Mamata Banerjee, said that the rebels were not welcome in the party that engineered their defection and sent them to little known third party.

The decision by the rebel Trinamool MPs to merge with a registered regional political party and not form a separate bloc within the Trinamool Congress was to avoid any legal complications under the anti-defection law. The law states that where two-thirds of the legislators of a political party decide to merge into another party, neither the members who decide to join nor the ones who stay with the original party will face disqualification.

The Trinamool Congress has been facing a rebellion after the party’s defeat in the 2026 West Bengal Assembly polls. 60 of the 80 MLAs of the party have formed a separate bloc and elected expelled Trinamool MLA Ritabrata Banerjee as Leader of Opposition.