Bengal BJP bigwigs soften stand on NCPI after Suvendu Adhikari calls on Sudip Banerjee

Sparking speculation of a new strategic alignment between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Nationalist Citizen Party of India (NCPI) ahead of municipal polls, West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Sunday (October 25, 2026) visited the residence of NCPI leader and Kolkata North MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay.

The meeting was described as a courtesy call by the Chief Minister, but the meeting has led to a change in the stance of party bigwigs towards NCPI. While the leaders of NCPI have been making statements that they want to ally with the BJP in the upcoming civic polls, senior leaders of the BJP had ruled out any such possibility.

Union Minister and BJP MP Sukanata Majumdar, who has been appointed the chairperson of the committee overseeing the party’s preparation for civil polls, had earlier said that the party will field candidates on all 209 seats of Kolkata Municipal Corporation. On Monday (October 26, 2026), Mr. Majumdar said that there is always some “permutation and combination in politics”. State’s Minister for Industries and Commerce Tapas Roy who is considered an arch rival of Sudip Banerjee on Monday (October 26, 2026) said that BJP was an all-India described himself as someone who will also abide by the party discipline.

After the defeat of the Trinamool Congress in the West Bengal Assembly polls in 2026, 20 MPs of the party joined the little-known NCPI. NCPI, which has veteran MPs like Sudip Banerjee and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, claims itself as the second biggest constituent of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) after the BJP.

The new bonhomie between the BJP and NCPI has caused heartburn among many in the BJP, including old-timers like Samik Bhattacharya, the West Bengal BJP president. Responding to questions by journalists on Monday (October 26, 2026), Mr. Bhattacharya said that “it would take us some thinking before holding hands of those believing in Congress ideology as blood of Syama Prasad Mookerjee is on Congress hands”.

Mr. Bhattacharya has often described Trinamool Congress leaders as a product of the Congress ideology. “BJP has always contested alone. I have been associated with the party when the vote percentage of the party was one percent. I never joined another party,” he said.

The State BJP president made the remarks a day after the State Chief Minister gave a certificate to six-time MP, Sudip Banerjee, by saying, “ I do not think that Sudip Babu has tormented any BJP worker,” Mr. Adhikari had said.

It is not only the bonhomie between the BJP and NCPI that has upset the old-timers in the BJP, but also the warmth between the Democratic Trinamool Congress and the saffron party. DTP, led by Ritabrata Banerjee and Arup Roy, has the support of 65 MLAs in the West Bengal Assembly out of the 80 who were elected on the ticket of Trinamool Congress.

Upset with the rapprochement between former Kolkata Mayor and DTP MLA Firhad Hakim and the ruling party, BJP leader Rakesh Singh, who contested and lost to him from the Kolkata Port seat. made a sarcastic comment. “If everyone in Trinamool is good, what is the problem with Mamata Banerjee? She can be inducted in the BJP too,” the BJP leader said.