We support NDA; final call on Trinamool MPs merger still awaited, says NCPI founder

New Delhi: The Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) founder Shantanu Dey on Monday said his party members will further deliberate and discuss the merger proposal from the Trinamool Congress MPs, as there are many ‘sticking points’ that persist.

Dey, also the NCPI secretary general, stated that his party shares the same ideology as the BJP and NDA, and, therefore, makes them ‘natural allies’. But, he said the assimilation of Trinamool MPs into his party was not final, as some members have raised red flags about the move and want more discussions.

“Our party president has taken a unilateral decision. Without consulting other senior party colleagues or me, he made the announcement. I also came to know about it yesterday evening,” Shantanu Dey stated.

The founder of the fledgling party from Tripura further said that he was looking forward to engaging with the leaders of BJP and NDA and ‘work together’ to amplify the outfit’s reach and impact on people’s lives.

The NCPI founder’s remarks come a day after Trinamool MPs met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Sunday, informing him that they have merged with the former and therefore wanted to sit as a separate bloc in the House.

The dissident camp of Trinamool MPs has already committed their support to the NDA.

The rebels, 20 of the 28 Trinamool members in Lok Sabha, crossed over and chose to merge with the new party. The arrangement enables them to circumvent the anti-defection law, which mandates a two-thirds majority, and also protects them from potential disqualification.

NCPI is a registered but unrecognised political party and has very limited presence on the ground. The outfit had contested the Assembly election in 2023 under the slogan ‘to save your rights, reject political turncoats’ and fielded candidates in about half a dozen constituencies.

Following the merger of the NCPI and the separate block of rebel Trinamool MPs, the former could emerge as the second-largest constituent in the NDA. Two of its allies, JD(U) and TDP, have 12 and 16 MPs each.

IANS