Kolkata, Sep 22 (PTI) The NCPI on Tuesday unveiled its new national organisational structure, handing key positions to seven former TMC MPs, along with other leaders who joined the party, including former cricketer-turned-politician Yusuf Pathan, actors-turned-politicians Deepak Adhikari Dev and Rachana Banerjee, and Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia.
Of the 27 national office-bearers announced by the NCPI, seven are among the 20 former TMC MPs who quit the Trinamool Congress and joined the party following the West Bengal Assembly elections, giving the former lawmakers a significant presence in the party’s new organisational set-up.
The list, however, also carries notable omissions. Senior TMC MPs Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, who have been prominent figures in the rebel parliamentary camp, do not figure among the new office-bearers.
The appointments come as the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) seeks to consolidate its organisational structure in Bengal following the influx of TMC leaders and lawmakers, while the 20 former TMC MPs face disqualification petitions under the anti-defection law.
Jyoti Prokash Chatterjee has been appointed the national president, while six former TMC MPs have been accommodated in the top rung of the new 27-member structure.
Pathan, Dev, Abu Taher Khan, Basunia and Banerjee have been appointed vice-presidents, along with Chandrima Panja.
The appointments come nearly four months after 20 of the TMC’s 27 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 new structure gives the former TMC MPs a visible role beyond Parliament, with the NCPI now putting in place a formal hierarchy for its national organisation.
Six general secretaries have also been appointed — Uttiya Kundu, Mitali Bag, Bapi Halder, Sulekha Bhunia, Vivek Mishra and Shuvendu Chakraborty.
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 secretaries.
Swarup Jaiswal has been named treasurer and Sudam Jetty joint-treasurer.
The restructuring comes at a politically sensitive juncture for the NCPI, with the status of the 20 former TMC MPs facing a separate legal challenge under the anti-defection law.
The MPs have sought another four weeks to respond to notices issued by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on petitions seeking their disqualification, after the deadline granted to them expired on Tuesday, senior leader Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said.
The notices followed a petition by TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee seeking action against the MPs after they left the Trinamool Congress and joined the NCPI. The matter subsequently reached the Supreme Court.
The rebel MPs have maintained that their move to the NCPI constituted a valid merger and have aligned themselves with the NDA.
The organisational appointments now add another dimension to the political realignment, with several of the MPs at the centre of the parliamentary dispute being given formal responsibilities in the party they joined.
The BJP has maintained that the NCPI is a separate political force within the NDA.
The NCPI’s new structure also brings together several recognisable faces from Bengal’s political and cultural landscape, with Pathan, Dev and Banerjee- all sitting Lok Sabha MPs who won on a TMC ticket- occupying vice-presidential positions.
The appointments effectively give the breakaway MPs a formal organisational platform at a time when their parliamentary status remains under consideration.
With the new committee now in place, the NCPI has formally assigned organisational responsibilities to several of those MPs, even as the separate proceedings concerning their continuation as members of the Lok Sabha remain unresolved. PTI PNT NN
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.