Rebel Trinamool Congress MPs announce merger with Nationalist Citizen Party

The rebel Trinamool Congress MPs will be merging with Nationalist Citizen Party, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said on Sunday (June 14, 2026), following a meeting with the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.

“20 MPs met the Speaker and asked to make separate seating arrangements for us. We are more than two thirds of the MPs and will merge with Nationalist Citizen Party. We will work with NDA for the interest of the country,” Dr. Dastidar said after meeting the Speaker.

Meanwhile, ahead of its rebel MPs’ planned meeting with Speaker Om Birla, the Trinamool Congress parliamentary party leader in the Lok Sabha, Abhishek Banerjee, had written to the Speaker, urging him not to accord any recognition, status or facility to any group claiming to be a separate faction of the party.

The split within the party’s Lok Sabha contingent became evident earlier this week, with dissident MPs publicly breaking ranks with the leadership of Mamata Banerjee.

On Monday (June 15, 2026), Ms. Dastidar had claimed the support of around 20 TMC MPs, saying the group intended to back the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the Centre.

(With inputs from PTI)