FOR the first time, a group of MPs who left the Trinamool Congress and joined the NCPI attended a meeting of the NDA parliamentary party on Tuesday with the attendance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and top Union ministers. As many as 20 Lok Sabha MPs revolted against their party, TMC, and joined the little-known Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI). While they are sitting separately in Lok Sabha, away from the TMC MPs, Speaker Om Birla is yet to take a call on giving NCPI recognition. After joining the NCPI, the MPs expressed their allegiance to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. A prominent face of the group, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, recently met the Prime Minister.

 

The NDA parliamentary party meeting was held at the Parliament House complex. “I participated in the NDA meeting. It was an enriching and informative meeting in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Today, we had a discussion on FTAs. It was a positive discussion,” NCPI MP Sayoni Ghosh said. She also said that everyone should support the anti-paper leak bill, which will come up for discussion this afternoon. Another lawmaker, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, said this was the first time 20 NCPI MPs were invited for the NDA’s “Mangal Milan” meeting. “We came to know about the progress of the country, about FTAs, farmers... With the data we got, we will be able to make people understand about these (issues) as well,” she said. Actor-turned politician Satabdi Roy said “good discussions” took place during the meeting. “We didn’t see such things in the past. It was organised. They informed us about which bills are coming. The prime minister didn’t speak,” she said