NCPI’s registered office in Howrah.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

A day after 20 Lok Sabha MPs of the Trinamool Congress decided to merge with the little-known Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), the party claimed in a social media post that it has become the largest parliamentary force from 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…” an NCPI Facebook post said. According to the post, NCPI now has 20 MPs in the Lok Sabha, while the BJP has 12, the Trinamool Congress eight, and the Congress one. The party also posted photographs of rebel Trinamool MPs with its election symbol—a fountain pen—welcoming them into the party.

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

According to the information available on the NCPI’s Facebook page, the party’s head office is located in Hatgachha village under the Sankrail police station area of Howrah district. The Facebook page was created in the early hours of Monday (June 15, 2026). The party is run by a couple, Uttiya Kundu and his wife Shewly Kundu.

The green-and-saffron party office in rural Howrah saw the deployment of police and Central forces outside it on Monday (June 15, 2026). The compound housing the office bears graffiti reading “Jaago Biswa (Awaken the World)” and references to a Bengali periodical. The names of Uttiya Kundu and Shewly Kundu are also written on the boundary wall at the entrance of the compound. Inside the compound, a banner of the NCPI was hung.

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

A few functionaries who were associated with the party in the past said that they were completely in the dark as far as the development of the merging of Trinamool Congress MPs was concerned.

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

Later in the day, Shewly Kundu told media persons outside Calcutta High Court that she was the founder president of this party but has resigned from the post.

“The new president of the party can give details. I don’t know who the new president is. In Tripura, we were with the NDA,” Ms. Kundu, who was wearing an advocate’s gown, said. She refused to comment on the merger of 20 Trinamool MLAs with the NCPI.

According to the Election Commission of India records, the NCPI was registered on February 2, 2023, at Jago Biswa building in Sankrail, Howrah. The party was allotted the symbol of a foundation pen by the ECI. Three NCPI candidates had also contested the Tripura Assembly elections but failed to win.

Trinamool Congress MLA Kunal Ghosh, considered a loyalist of party supremo Mamata Banerjee, said that the rebels were not welcome in the party that had engineered their defection and sent them to a 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 when two-thirds of the legislators of a political party decide to merge with another political party, neither the members who join the merger nor the ones who stay with the original party face disqualification.

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

Published – June 15, 2026 04:16 pm IST