Congress alleges Amit Shah engineered TMC-NCPI merger to boost NDA
The Congress on Monday accused Union Home Minister Amit Shah of masterminding what it called an "illegal breakaway" of 20 rebel Trinamool Congress MPs after
The Congress on Monday accused Union Home Minister Amit Shah of masterminding what it called an "illegal breakaway" of 20 rebel Trinamool Congress MPs after they announced their merger with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI). The party said the move was part of Shah's strategy to engineer a two-thirds majority for the NDA in the Lok Sabha. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said the development had taken Indian democracy to "new lows" and alleged that "decency, decorum and devotion to constitutional values and principles remain vulnerable and threatened every day he continues in office". He said the NCPI, a registered but unrecognised party formed three years ago, could become the second-largest constituent in the NDA through the merger.
Read Full Story In a post on X, Ramesh said, "A desperate Union home minister – who is an absolute disgrace to the position once held by Sardar Patel – has taken Indian democracy to new lows in a shameless manner." He also said Shah had "masterminded the illegal breakaway of 20 TMC MPs and their wholly questionable fusion with an unheard of and reportedly registered but unrecognised political outfit formed just three years back". Ramesh further said the NCPI could end up becoming the second-largest constituent in the NDA, ahead of the TDP and JD(U), and said those parties should be protesting their "downgrade" through such "underhand tactics" and in such a "disgusting" manner.
"This bizarre move is part of the Union home minister's strategy to engineer a two-thirds majority for the NDA in the Lok Sabha," he said. On Sunday, the 20 rebel TMC MPs met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and announced that they were merging with the NCPI, a Tripura-based registered unrecognised political party. On Monday, rebel TMC MP Arup Chakraborty said the breakaway faction was trying to "rectify" the party and would fight for control of its election symbol, even as the Mamata Banerjee-led party termed the move illegal under the anti-defection law. The NCPI is a Tripura-based registered unrecognised party with no significant political presence.
It contested three seats in the 2023 Tripura Assembly polls, with its candidates either finishing behind NOTA or getting only a few votes more. The latest political clash centres on the Congress charge that the merger was engineered to strengthen the NDA in the Lok Sabha, while the rebel TMC faction says it is seeking to "rectify" the party. Ends With inputs from PTI
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