Opposition Walks Out Over Invitation to Rebel TMC MPs

Opposition parties staged a symbolic walkout from an all-party meeting in New Delhi on Sunday, July 19, 2026, to protest the government's invitation to a group of 20 rebel Trinamool Congress (TMC) lawmakers. The meeting, convened by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju ahead of Parliament's Monsoon Session, was intended to discuss the government's legislative agenda. The opposition objected to the presence of the rebel MPs, who were invited as representatives of the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), a status that has not been formally recognized by the Lok Sabha Speaker.

The protest centered on the invitation extended to Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, who attended as the NCPI's floor leader and chief whip. Opposition leaders, including Congress's Pramod Tiwari, Samajwadi Party's Dharmendra Yadav, NCP (SP)'s Supriya Sule, and TMC's Mahua Moitra, argued that the invitation granted political legitimacy to the group before the Speaker had completed the procedural review of their claim. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla had granted the rebel MPs separate seating in the House on Saturday, July 18, but their request for official recognition as an NCPI...