Kolkata, June 15 (IANS) After 20 rebel Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha members on Sunday announced their joining the virtually non-existent Tripura-based political force, the National Citizens Party of India (NCPI), the party resurfaced on social media in a new look on Monday.

On the wall of the new‑look Facebook page of NCPI that surfaced on Monday morning, each of the 20 rebel Trinamool Lok Sabha members, who had revolted under the leadership of four‑time Lok Sabha members Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Satabdi Roy, was welcomed to the party.

Although in an initial post, Ghosh Dastidar was described as the leader of the new party, that post was later deleted.

In the social media post, NCPI was described as the biggest political party in West Bengal in terms of Lok Sabha representation. As per current calculations, the rebel Trinamool bloc joining NCPI had 20 MPs, followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at 12, the original Trinamool bloc under the leadership of former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at eight and Congress at one.

The Basirhat seat in the North 24 Parganas district remains vacant following the death of Trinamool MP Haji Sk. Nurul Islam in September 2024, just a few months after his election.

Shantanu Dey, the ‘National Organising General Secretary’ of NCPI, said on Sunday that though he is a founding member of NCPI, he was not informed of any prior information about the 20 rebel Trinamool MPs joining the party.

He also said he would have opposed the move had he been aware of it earlier. However, on Monday, he changed his position and accepted the development after fellow party members convinced him that it was necessary to expand the party nationally. “We will now work together in the NDA,” Dey said.

Another founding member, Siuli Kundu, who is now away from politics and concentrating on her legal profession and social work activities, also welcomed the development while speaking to media persons on Monday.

“I am happy that the party is reaching a much bigger political arena with the joining of so many MPs at a time,” Kundu said.

NCPI has an office in Bankra, in the Kolkata‑adjacent Howrah district. From Monday, the Central Armed Police Forces were deployed in front of that office.

–IANS

src/dan