How a party with 822 votes became TMC rebels’ escape route

Weeks after rebellion erupted within the

Trinamool Congress

, the party’s rebel MPs have made their next move.
A group of 20 MPs has told Lok Sabha Speaker

Om Birla

that it wants to merge with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India — NCPN in Election Commission records, but now widely referred to as NCPI — a little-known party that has never won an election and secured only 822 votes in its lone Assembly election appearance.