West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari is likely to meet MPs of the Nationalist Citizens Party of India on Tuesday (August 4, 2026). Senior NCPI MPs Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar have confirmed the meeting, which would be the first between the Chief Minister and the 20 MPs who defected from Trinamool Congress (TMC) and joined the fledgling party.

“The agenda of the meeting is development in our respective parliamentary constituencies. A large number of our party workers are still homeless after the change of government. We want them to be brought back to their homes,” Mr. Bandyopadhyay told mediapersons in Delhi.

He said Mr. Adhikari was supposed to meet the MPs last week but the meeting could not be held since he could not arrive in Delhi in time. Ms. Dastidar, who left for Delhi, all NCPI MPs will meet the Chief Minister.

The Tuesday (August 4) meeting is being held against the backdrop of the 20 MPs stating that they are part of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the Centre. Recently, they attended the NDA parliamentary party’s weekly ‘Mangal Milan’ meeting.

Meanwhile, speculations are rife that leaders from the ‘Kalighat camp’, which comprises of the loyalists of Trinamool founder Mamata Banerjee, are likely to switch sides and join the NCPI. They include two Lok Sabha members. The Trinamool has roughly eight MPs in the Lower House at this point after the desertions after having won 29 seats in the 2024 general election.

Reacting to the speculations, Mamata loyalist and Beleghata MLA Kunal Ghosh blamed it on “pressure from the police and administration”. He claimed that about 30 out of 65 MLAs who are supporting Leader of Opposition Ritabrata Banerjee are also in touch with Ms. Banerjee. The Trinamool had won 80 seats in the Assembly election held earlier this year.

Frozen funds

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Monday (August 3) urged the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to consider allowing the Trinamool access to a portion of the funds lying in three debit-frozen bank accounts, observing that the party would require money to meet its day-to-day expenses. The court, however, made it clear that it would not examine at this stage the merits of the dispute over the legality of the freezing order, which remains pending before the Calcutta High Court.

A Bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and P.B. Varale was hearing the Trinamool’s appeal against a July 20 order of the High Court refusing to grant interim relief against the ED’s decision to freeze three HDFC Bank accounts belonging to the party as part of a money-laundering investigation.

(with inputs from Aaratrika Bhaumik in New Delhi)