Theatre of absurd: Kapil Sibal slams rebel TMC MPs' merger move
Senior advocate and Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Sunday criticised the rebel Trinamool Congress MPs' decision to merge with the Nationalist Citizens Party of
Senior advocate and Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Sunday criticised the rebel Trinamool Congress MPs' decision to merge with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), describing the move as "theatre of the absurd". In a post on X, Sibal said the MPs could merge with another political party "only if the TMC wishes to do so", and argued that the party should move to disqualify them. Read Full Story His remarks came after rebel TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar announced that 20 dissident MPs would merge with the Tripura-based Nationalist Citizens Party of India while extending support to the BJP-led Democratic Alliance (NDA). 'WILL COLLABORATE WITH NDA' Speaking to ANI after meeting Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Dastidar said the rebel MPs had submitted a letter seeking separate seating arrangements in Parliament.
She said the group would "collaborate" with the NDA under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership. "We, the twenty MPs elected from the AITC, met the Speaker and submitted a letter requesting separate seating. These twenty MPs constitute more than two-thirds of our total strength. We are merging with the Nationalist Citizens Party. Going forward, we will work for the nation and collaborate with the NDA under the leadership of the Prime Minister," she said. TMC rebel MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay echoed Dastidar's sentiments and said the question of which faction constituted the "real TMC" would ultimately be decided by the courts. "We have joined the Nationalist Citizens Party. It is a recognised regional political party.
We have merged with it. It will be decided in court which one is the real TMC," he said. Bandyopadhyay further said the Speaker had verified their signatures and acknowledged that the rebel group represented more than two-thirds of the party's Lok Sabha strength. He added that the dissident MPs would seek to claim the Trinamool Congress name when Parliament reconvenes in July. NCPI: A LITTLE-KNOWN TRIPURA PARTY The Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) remained largely unknown until the rebel TMC MPs announced their decision to merge with it. Based in Tripura, the NCPI is a registered unrecognised political party with no significant electoral presence. Its election symbol is an ink pen nib with seven strokes.
The party contested three seats in the 2023 Tripura Assembly elections, with its candidates either finishing behind NOTA or securing only marginally higher vote counts. NCPI founder Santanu Dey, who describes himself as an RSS activist and social worker, has expressed reservations about the merger. Speaking to India Today, Dey said his party had contested against the TMC in the Tripura Assembly elections. According to sources, the rebel TMC MPs opted to align with the NCPI due to legal complications associated with forming a separate parliamentary bloc. Ends
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