When Insignificance Turns Into Asset: Why TMC Rebels Chose Obscure NCPI To Abandon Mamata
Choosing NCPI appears to offer something the BJP could not -- a legally defensible pathway out of TMC while preserving collective strength in Parliament.
Published : June 15, 2026 at 11:54 AM IST
Kolkata: The 20 rebel Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha MPs deciding to merge with the rather obscure Tripura-based registered unrecognised political party could give the group a legally safer route. It also benefits the BJP from their indirect support without immediately inducting them.
As the rebel TMC faction merged with the NCPI on Sunday, but political observers see it a careful move to bypass legalities and, at the same time, make political calculations, underpinning the biggest crisis to have hit the Trinamool Congress since its formation in 1998. In other words, obscurity was the strategy rather than a liability for the rebels.
According to sources, the TMC rebels had originally planned to walk out of the TMC with two-third MPs, constitute a separate group in Parliament and support the BJP-led NDA. But the choice to join the NCPI appears to offer something the BJP could not -- a legally defensible pathway out of the TMC while preserving their collective strength in Parliament.
As parliamentary rules left little room for such an arrangement, the rebels turned to the NCPI for legitimacy. According to a senior rebel MP, the decision was driven by "practical considerations rather than ideology".
"We wanted to move collectively and create a political space outside Mamata Banerjee's control without triggering unnecessary procedural hurdles. The NCPI route offered a workable parliamentary solution," he said.
According to CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty, the move by the TMC rebels to join the obscure outfit reflects lessons drawn from the parallel rebellion inside the West Bengal Assembly. "This is less of a political merger than a legal device," he said, adding that the rebels seem keen to avoid the complications that followed the TMC split in the Assembly.
Unlike the assembly battlefield, the Lok Sabha TMC rebels are not claiming to be the "real" TMC nor are they attempting to seize the party's organisation, symbol or institutional structure.
After they sought to project themselves as the authentic TMC and elected their own leader in the assembly, immediate litigation and competing claims for legitimacy followed. Considerate of this reality, the Lok Sabha rebel TMC MPs seem to have accepted that the organisational TMC would remain with Mamata Banerjee, while seeking to detach the parliamentary wing from her control.
But senior TMC leader Sougata Roy dismissed the significance of the development while claiming that the party's strength remained intact.
"Some MPs may leave, but the Trinamool Congress belongs to Mamata Banerjee. The organisation, workers and people remain with her. Those who think they can weaken the party by changing labels are mistaken," Roy said.
Given the fact that the TMC is built around a highly centralised structure with the control over the party machinery resting with Mamata Banerjee, the rebels treated with caution.
BJP's Role And No Immediate Mass Induction
While several key meetings took place at the residence of Union minister Bhupender Yadav, the BJP has shown little interest for inducting the rebel TMC MPs into the party-fold en masse. The strategy is driven by West Bengal's political realities.
With many rebels spending years attacking the BJP and contesting elections against it, their mass induction could create friction within the West Bengal unit of the saffron party.
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury believes the development to be an exercise in parliamentary pragmatism.
"The BJP's immediate interest is numbers in Parliament, not necessarily expanding its organisational family in West Bengal overnight," he said.
According to political analysts, the NCPI route solved two problems simultaneously -- it gave the rebels a vehicle through which they could move collectively without immediately confronting legal complications and allowed the BJP to secure parliamentary support without forcing an awkward political merger in West Bengal.
"It is easier for the BJP to work with them as allies for now than absorb them immediately into the organisation," political analyst Biswanath Chakraborty said.
While previous high-profile exits of Mukul Roy and Suvendu Adhikari were individual in nature, the latest revolt involving a sizeable bloc of TMC MPs challenges Mamata Banerjee's grip over the party.
According to senior advocate and TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee, elected representatives may leave, but control over the party organisation, symbol and funds remains elsewhere. "That makes any attempt to capture the party structure extraordinarily difficult," he said. It remains to be seen whether the arrangement survives beyond Parliament.
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