.avif?w=801&auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=max&format=webp&dpr=1.0)
Dissident Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha members met Speaker Om Birla on Sunday to request separate seating arrangements in the lower house.
Rebel MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar claimed that two-thirds of the TMC's parliamentary ranks signed the letter to merge with the Nationalist Citizens Party and support the NDA.
Senior leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay stated that the rebel faction plans to claim the official TMC electoral symbol, leaving the final decision to the judiciary.
Dissident Trinamool Congress MPs announced their merger with the Nationalist Citizens Party and formally aligned with the NDA, declaring a split in the party's parliamentary ranks.
The rebel MPs met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Sunday, June 14, 2026, to request a separate seating arrangement in the lower house, as per reports.
Rebel MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said two-thirds of the TMC's Lok Sabha members signed the letter submitted to the Speaker.
"Two-thirds MPs of TMC have given a letter to the Speaker for a separate seating arrangement. We will merge with the Nationalist Citizens Party and support the NDA," she said, in remarks reported by Economic Times.
Claiming the Real TMC
Senior TMC leader and Lok Sabha MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay described the Nationalist Citizens Party as a lesser-known registered, unrecognised regional party from Tripura. The dissident camp announced plans to claim the TMC's official electoral symbol of "two flowers".
Asked about the competing claim of the Mamata Banerjee-led faction, Bandyopadhyay pushed the competing claims over party ownership toward the judiciary.
.avif?auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=max&format=webp&w=768&dpr=1.0)
"Court will decide later who is the real TMC. We met the Speaker and gave him our request," he said.
“We 20 MPs, who were elected from the AITC, have met the Speaker and given him a letter urging him to allow us to sit as a separate bloc. And these 20 MPs, who are more than two-thirds (of the strength of the AITC), this faction, is with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India. We will work for the country and work with the NDA under the leadership of the Prime Minister,” TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar told media.
“We have merged with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India. It is a political party. It is a recognised regional party. We have merged with it,” veteran TMC MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay said. He said it would be decided in the court which was the “real TMC”. The Nationalist Citizens Party of India is a little-known outfit based in Tripura.
Official TMC Fights Back
TMC leaders Kirti Azad and Sagarika Ghosh met Speaker Birla on Sunday to submit a formal objection letter.
The document, written by TMC Lok Sabha leader Abhishek Banerjee, was dated June 10 and previously sent via email.
Banerjee's letter argues that the Constitution and the anti-defection law do not permit the formation of a separate group within an existing political party.
