Rebel TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar. File
| Photo Credit: PTI
Rebel Trinamool Congress MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar on Tuesday (June 16, 2026) said the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) has agreed to accept the joining of all the dissident Lok Sabha members of her party, whose numbers are likely to go up to 22 from the present 20.
Ms. Dastidar also said that the rebel MPs have no connection with the dissident TMC MLAs, who have formed a separate group in the West Bengal Assembly, recognised by Speaker Rathindra Bose.
Asked about the next move of the rebel TMC MPs, the lawmaker from Bengal’s Barasat said that first they want to settle down while trying to merge into another party.
“Acceptance has already come to us. They [NCPI] are happy to take us. We will work together with the NDA under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah,” Ms. Dastidar told reporters at the Parliament House complex.
Asked about her faction’s strength, she said, “Currently we are 20 (MPs). The numbers may go up to 22.” Altogether, 28 MPs got elected to the Lok Sabha on TMC tickets in the 2024 general elections.
On the relations with the rebel TMC MLAs in Bengal, Ms. Dastidar said the dissident MPs have no connection with the State Legislators. “We have no connection with them. They are a separate group; their issues and agenda are different,” she said.
Ms. Dastidar, who earlier in the day attended a meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, said the previous TMC Government in West Bengal did not implement the women’s safety scheme in the State in the last 10 years.
“We were just discussing that even child safety issues were not allowed in Bengal. Like that, many other schemes were not implemented under the previous (TMC) government,” she said.
The senior MP said they are looking to implement all the Central schemes in Bengal with the help of Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari.
“Certain schemes have not been implemented in West Bengal. Child marriage is highest in Bengal, according to NCRB data. That is also a crime. So, these things were happening in Bengal, which none of them took up. So, we are trying to work for the betterment of the people of Bengal,” she said.
The crisis in the TMC deepened on Sunday (June 14) after the dissident MPs announced their merger with the little-known NCPI, and met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking a separate seating arrangement in the House.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting with Birla, Ms. Dastidar had said that 20 TMC MPs had signed a representation submitted to the speaker.
“Two-thirds of TMC MPs have given a letter to the speaker for a separate seating arrangement in the House. We will merge with the Nationalist Citizens Party and support the NDA,” she had said.
The NCPI registered itself as a political party in January 2023, with a building in Sankarail in West Bengal’s Howrah district as its address in Election Commission records.
The little-known outfit has now unexpectedly entered the national political discourse after the rebel TMC MPs announced their merger with the party.
Published – June 16, 2026 03:52 pm IST
