NCPI likely to be invited to all-party meet; Sudip Bandyopadhyay to be floor leader

Lok Sabha MPs Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, who have left the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and joined the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), are likely to be the floor leader and chief whip respectively of the little-known outfit, which is expected to be called for an all-party meeting to be held ahead of the Monsoon session of Parliament.

The two MPs from West Bengal, who revolted against the TMC leadership along with 18 other parliamentarians last month and subsequently announced that they had joined the NCPI, met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Monday and discussed with him seating arrangements for the party’s 20 MPs in the Lower House, sources said.

During their meeting with the speaker, the NCPI leaders also discussed the allotment of a party office in the new Parliament building, the sources added.

The MPs who have switched to the NCPI have informed Birla that they have designated Bandyopadhyay as their floor leader, Satabdi Roy as the deputy leader and Ghosh Dastidar as the chief whip. The meeting comes ahead of the Monsoon session of Parliament starting July 20 and amid the process of according parliamentary recognition to the NCPI as a constituent in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

The NCPI has been asked to submit a party resolution extending support to the NDA and the Narendra Modi Government, the sources said. Bandyopadhyay also met Home Minister Amit Shah recently, they said.

The NCPI is expected to submit a formal communication to the Speaker’s Office, seeking parliamentary recognition.

The NCPI is also likely to be invited to the all-party meeting to be held on July 19.

The meeting of Bandyopadhyay and Ghosh Dastidar with Birla assumes significance as petitions have been filed by the TMC seeking the disqualification of the 20 MPs who have quit the party and joined the NCPI. TMC leader in the Lok Sabha, Abhishek Banerjee, has met Birla and submitted 20 separate petitions seeking the disqualification of the rebel MPs under the 10th Schedule of the Constitution. He has argued that the MPs have voluntarily given up the membership of the TMC by joining another party and are, therefore, liable to be disqualified.

Banerjee has also urged the speaker not to accord any recognition, status or facility to any group claiming to be a separate faction of the TMC. The sources said the issue of the disqualification petitions did not come up during Monday’s meeting of the MPs with the speaker.