Kolkata: The ownership of Trinamool Congress’s twin flowers symbol has emerged as the final hurdle before the newly formed Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) secures formal recognition, MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay said after meeting CM Suvendu Adhikari and senior BJP ministers in Delhi on Tuesday.Bandyopadhyay said he raised the matter directly with Union minister Bhupender Yadav, seeking clarity on when NCPI would receive official recognition. According to him, Yadav replied that the immediate priority was deciding which faction would retain the twin flowers symbol. Once that issue was settled, Bandyopadhyay said, recognition and the remaining procedural matters would be resolved “very quickly”.Bandyopadhyay added that he found the Union minister’s response “positive”.The remarks came on a politically significant day as Adhikari held a closed-door meeting with NCPI MPs at Delhi’s Banga Bhawan, even as the party’s internal divisions over its relationship with BJP and NDA came into sharper focus.The meeting lasted for more than an hour and was attended by a host of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs, including Satabdi Roy, Rachana Banerjee, June Malia, Abu Taher Khan, Yusuf Pathan, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Sushmita Dev and Prakash Chik Baraik.Significantly, Murshidabad MPs Khan, Khalilur Rahaman and Pathan, who skipped the NDA parliamentary meeting earlier in the day, joined the CM’s meeting, underlining that while they are part of NCPI, they do not wish to be identified with either BJP or NDA.Khan later told TOI that their political position remained unchanged. “We did not attend the Mangal Milan parliamentary meeting. We will not support or remain aligned with NDA, as we have strong objections to any potential merger with BJP. As minority representatives, aligning with such a coalition is inherently problematic for us and our constituencies. We have communicated this stance. We are now with NCPI and we will state our position when needed,” he said.Khan, however, stressed that the group would cooperate with Bengal govt on development and remain willing to support parliamentary legislation on its merits, provided it did not compromise the interests of minorities, Bengal or the country.“We had lunch at Banga Bhawan. They had some discussion regarding MP-LAD work. I listened to that. Keep watching. This is just the preview, a lot is yet to come,” Adhikari said after the meeting.Bandyopadhyay said Adhikari proposed convening a detailed meeting at Nabanna after the ongoing Parliament session to resolve organisational issues and address complaints from party workers who were allegedly forced to leave their homes.Satabdi said MPs were asked to submit written proposals covering roads, bridges, hospitals, ICDS centres and pending welfare beneficiaries. “Our meeting was very fruitful. After our session ends, we will go and sit at the CM’s place at Nabanna again and submit the proposals in writing,” she added.After the meeting, Rachana told reporters they had been waiting for the CM for the past 10-15 days. “There were innumerable queries about how we will proceed with the development work of our constituencies. We took advice from him and he provided us with a roadmap,” she said.MPs Malia and Bapi Halder echoed the same. “He has promised us all Members of Parliament, whoever have joined NCPI and the NDA ally, that we shouldn’t be facing any kind of problem while working in our constituencies.” “He is a complete expert in the field of Bengal’s development, and in every development matter,” Halder said.
