Rebel TMC MPs merge with Nationalist Citizens Party, to ‘collaborate with NDA’: Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar

After meeting Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Sunday, rebel TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said 20 rebel Lok Sabha MPs are merging with the Tripura-based Nationalist Citizens Party.

“Moving forward, we will work for the nation and collaborate with the NDA [National Democratic Alliance] under the leadership of the Prime Minister [Narendra Modi],” Ghosh said.

She claimed the support of 20 Lok Sabha MPs. The TMC has 28 members in the Lok Sabha. The rebels need two-thirds of the bloc of 19 MPs to avoid disqualification under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.

“We, the 20 MPs elected from the AITC, met the Speaker and submitted a letter requesting to sit separately; these 20 MPs constitute more than two-thirds of our total strength,” Ghosh said.

TMC rebel MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay also confirmed, saying, “We have joined the Nationalist Citizens' Party. This is a political party. It is a recognised regional party. We have merged with it... It will be decided in the court which one is the real TMC.”

Rebel Trinamool Congress MPs Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Satabdi Roy, and others on Sunday arrived at the residence of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla in the national capital to demand a separate sitting arrangement in the House amid the ongoing rift within the party.

Abhishek Banerjee writes to Lok Sabha Speaker: ‘There can be no split’

Amid Ghosh's claim, Mamata Banerjee's loyalist and TMC's National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla regarding reports that certain party MPs may seek recognition as a "separate group or faction" in the Lower House of Parliament.

In his communication dated June 10, 2026, Banerjee stated that the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) is a "single, indivisible political party" and that the legislative party in the Lok Sabha exists only as an "emanation of" the parent political party.

Addressing Speaker Om Birla, Banerjee made three specific requests:

1. The submission be formally "placed on record" to contests the legitimacy of any competing "group" or "faction"

2. To recognise the AITC as a single entity represented solely through its authorised Leader and Whip; to decline any status to “purported separate groups”

3. To grant the AITC an opportunity to be heard before any decision is made regarding such communications.

After submitting a letter by TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, TMC MP Kirti Azad said, “We have given a letter. There can be no split in violation of the Constitution. I have already told the Speaker that these people have no legitimacy. The way they are acting is unconstitutional. 'Jis thaali me khaya, usi me cheed kiya'...”

This comes amidst the ongoing political crisis within the Trinamool Congress, where 58 MLAs under the leadership of expelled MLA Ritabrata Banerjee in West Bengal, and 20 MPs led by Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar in the Lok Sabha have rebelled against the party.

Three Rajya Sabha MPs, including Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Sushmita Dev and Prakash Baraik, have also resigned from their upper house and party membership.