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A meeting of the parliamentary party of the National Citizens' Party of India (NCPI) is scheduled to be held at 4 pm today in the Samvidhan Sadan building.
The meeting is expected to discuss the party's strategy ahead of the Monsoon Session. Twenty rebel MPs of the Trinamool Congress in the Lok Sabha had earlier announced that they are merging with NCPI. Rebel Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay attended the all-party meeting, convened the day before the Monsoon Session of Parliament, as the leader of the Nationalist Citizen Party of India (NCPI). Bandyopadhyay asserted that the "House belongs to the Opposition" while calling on the government to ensure the smooth functioning of Parliament. Speaking to ANI on the all-party meeting, Bandyopadhyay said they were invited for the meeting. "We attended--representing the new party with 20 MPs. Our stance is that the House belongs to the Opposition; this must be acknowledged. The government, too, must agree and take the initiative to ensure the House functions smoothly." He said earlier that the party is "secular" in its thinking. "Let the House run and equally, we are the firm believers of the principle of secularism, communal harmony and unity of the country. We are not ditching from this line. We are completely secular by nature," he said. "We are committed to our party's principles: secularism, communal harmony, and national unity. These are the firm policies enshrined in the NCPI's constitution. We believe this is significant because, among the 20 MPs who formed the NCPI, three are Muslim." Meanwhile, Opposition parties staged a "walkout" from the all-party meeting convened by the government ahead of the Monsoon Session of Parliament over Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju extending an invitation to the NCPI to take part in the meeting. They later came back to attend the all-party meeting. (ANI)
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