CM to Meet NCPI MPs in New Delhi Today

PTI, August 3, 2026, Kolkata : Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari is set to hold a meeting with the 20 Lok Sabha MPs of the Nationalist Citizens Party of India, who broke away from the TMC, in New Delhi on Tuesday, in the first interaction between the two sides after the NCPI joined the NDA.

NCPI Parliamentary Party leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay said the discussions would primarily centre on development issues concerning the MPs' constituencies and the rehabilitation of party workers allegedly displaced after the BJP came to power in West Bengal on May 4.

The meeting, scheduled at the state guest house Banga Bhavan, comes a week after a similar interaction was expected but did not materialise, and is being closely watched amid continuing speculation over the future political course of the NCPI and its relationship with the BJP.

"The agenda of the meeting is development in our respective parliamentary constituencies. A large number of our party workers are still homeless after the change of government. We want them to be brought back to their homes," Bandyopadhyay said.

The NCPI leader's remarks suggest that the leadership is keen to project the meeting as one focused on governance and administrative coordination rather than political realignment, even as speculation over the party's long-term future persists.

Tuesday's programme assumes significance as it comes days after NCPI MPs attended the NDA parliamentary party's weekly 'Mangal Milan' meeting for the first time, signalling their growing integration into the ruling coalition at the Centre following the party's decision to become an NDA constituent.

The 20 dissident TMC Lok Sabha MPs joined the NCPI, a relatively unknown political outfit, following their split from the Mamata Banerjee-led party earlier this year.

While they now function as an NDA ally inside Parliament, the group continues to await a final decision from Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on issues arising out of their defection, including petitions filed by the TMC seeking their disqualification under the anti-defection law.

Political observers said Tuesday's meeting is likely to reinforce coordination between the BJP-led state government and the NCPI MPs on constituency development, parliamentary strategy and organisational issues.

The interaction also underlines Adhikari's continued effort to politically consolidate the breakaway MPs, whose support has altered the parliamentary arithmetic in West Bengal and weakened the TMC's once formidable Lok Sabha contingent.

Although reports of a possible merger of the NCPI with the BJP have surfaced repeatedly over the past few weeks, neither side has officially indicated that such a move is under active consideration.