Kolkata: Taking even its founder members by surprise, the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) updated its Facebook page on Tuesday night, announcing Jyotiprakash Chatterji as its president, hours before they are set to meet on Wednesday to chalk out the merger modalities. The meeting in Salt Lake on Wednesday will be attended by nine of NCPI’s 10 founder members.“Your leadership, dedication and commitment to the people inspire confidence and hope for a brighter future. We look forward to working together to strengthen our organisation and serve the nation with integrity, unity, and purpose,” the post mentioned but didn’t share any photograph or details about the person. “Special Note: We will be sharing detailed information about Shri Jyotiprakash Chatterji, including his background, vision, and future plans, shortly,” it added.Reacting to the development, Santanu Dey, one of the founder members and organisational secretary of the original party, said he had no clue who Chatterji was. “I am hearing this name for the first time. I don’t know who he is and when he joined our party. I will need more clarity before commenting on him,” he said.Meanwhile, Trinamool rebel MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar told reporters in Delhi that NCPI has already agreed to the merger, and they wanted to work for the development of Bengal under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah.But NCPI’s founder members are still awaiting orders from the new leadership of 20 TMC rebel MPs to rejig their party set-up.“We have been speaking among ourselves. There have been discussions on the rejig of party posts now that we have 20 MPs. The founder members will meet to discuss the modalities as we await more clarity and instructions from the new leadership,” said an office-bearer of NCPI who have been associated with the party since it was conceptualised in June 2022.He claimed that the discussion will also revolve around inclusion of multiple ground-level Trinamool workers, many of whom were getting in touch with the party.The obscure Howrah-based NCPI, that once struggled to secure even a thousand votes in Tripura in 2023 and had only Rs 75 in its account at the end of FY 2022-23, has overnight emerged as the second largest parliamentary bloc, courtesy the 20 rebel Trinamool MPs who announced their merger with it.“The sudden merger has created a lot of ambiguity among the founder members. The manner in which the merger happened, keeping many members in the dark, has further added to the ambiguity. But we are trying to get more clarity with face-to-face meetings. We will also have meetings with the new MPs,” said another NCPI officer-bearer and founder member.NCPI vice-president Uttiya Kundu, touted as the man behind the merger, especially with his cryptic Facebook posts criticising the Mamata Banerjee-run Trinamool and photos alongside CM Suvendu Adhikari, has also reportedly held multiple telephonic meetings with the founder members.Kundu did not receive calls from TOI or respond to text messages despite multiple attempts.Another founder member of NPCI said Wednesday’s meeting will also include discussions on the party’s future resolution. “Earlier our party’s motto was food, clothing, shelter, health, education and legal rights for all. Now that we are a much bigger party, the resolutions and ideas will also need to change,” he added.
