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The Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) on Tuesday announced the appointment of its national office-bearers, with seven former Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs among the 27 members given organisational responsibilities in the party.
NCPI National President Jyotiprokash Chatterjee issued the appointment list, naming former TMC MPs Abu Taher Khan, Deepak Adhikari Dev, Yusuf Pathan, Jagdish Chandra Barma Basunia, Rachana Banerjee and Mitali Bag as Vice Presidents, while Bapi Halder was appointed as a General Secretary. The newly announced organisational structure also includes Chandrima Panja as Vice President and Uttiya Kundu, Sulekha Bhunia, Vivek Mishra and Shuvendu Chakraborty as General Secretaries. Avishek Mukherjee, Kallol Chakraborty, Bappa Sardar, Prabir Mahata, Mrityunjoy Sinha, Pallab Mukherjee, Dibyendu Das, Biplab Deb, Pradip Dhar, Susmita Bhunia, Swati Goswami Bose, and Monalisha Khatun have been appointed as Secretaries. Swarup Jaiswal and Sudam Jetty have been given the responsibilities of Treasurer and Joint-Treasurer respectively. The list, however, does not include senior TMC MPs Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, who have been prominent figures among the rebel parliamentary camp. The appointments come nearly four months after 20 TMC Lok Sabha MPs quit the party following its defeat in the West Bengal Assembly elections and joined the NCPI, extending support to the BJP-led NDA. The appointments come at a time when the political status of the 20 former TMC MPs who joined the NCPI remains under scrutiny. Disqualification petitions under the anti-defection law were filed against them after TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee sought action following their exit from the party. The matter reached the Supreme Court, while the MPs have maintained that their move to the NCPI was a valid merger and have aligned themselves with the NDA. The rebel MPs have sought an additional four weeks to respond to notices issued by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on the disqualification petitions, after the deadline granted to them expired on Tuesday. The NCPI has maintained that it is a separate political force within the NDA, and the latest appointments mark a formal expansion of its organisational structure after the induction of former TMC lawmakers. (ANI)
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