20 rebel TMC MPs to merge with Nationalist Citizens Party, back NDA: Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar

NEW DELHI: Twenty rebel Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs in Lok Sabha are set to merge with the Nationalist Citizens Party and would extend their support to the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), said TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar on Sunday."We, the twenty MPs elected from the AITC, met the Speaker and submitted a letter requesting to sit separately; these twenty MPs constitute more than two-thirds of our total strength. We are merging with the Nationalist Citizens Party. Moving forward, we will work for the nation and collaborate with the NDA under the leadership of the Prime Minister," said rebel TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar.

This came after hours long meeting with the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla in New Delhi.Earlier, Abhishek Banerjee wrote to Birla, urging him not to recognise any separate faction of the party."The AITC is a single, indivisible political party. The legislative party in the Lok Sabha derives its very existence from, and remains an emanation of, the political party. There is in law only one AITC, one Leader of the Party in the House, and one Whip, all of whom hold office by authority of the political party and its competent organisational authority. No member or set of members can, by their own volition, carve out a parallel 'group' or 'faction' of the same party and claim independent recognition within the House," he said in the letter.