KOLKATA: A modest two-storey building in Howrah’s Andul, which drew little attention till Sunday night, is now one of India’s most closely watched political addresses, guarded by BSF and Bengal police, reports Tamaghna Banerjee.The building, which houses an NGO, serves as the headquarters of Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), an obscure outfit that had been struggling for relevance after securing just 822 votes in the 2023 Tripura assembly elections before being thrust into the national spotlight by the decision of 20 rebel Trinamool Lok Sabha MPs to merge with it.A day after news of the merger broke, the party created a social media page declaring that it now represents the largest parliamentary bloc from Bengal. In a series of posts, it welcomed the MPs into the party, whose election symbol is a pen nib with seven rays.Registered with EC as a Registered Unrecognised Political Party on Jan 20, 2023, NCPI had remained largely invisible. Although based in Bengal, it chose Tripura for its electoral debut in 2023.NCPI fielded seven candidates in the Tripura polls, but four of them had their nomination papers cancelled. The remaining three together polled only 822 votes.
Party sources said the organisation had just Rs 75 as closing balance at the end of the fiscal 2022-23. During that financial year, it declared having received Rs 1,13,075 in “donations from wellwishers”. Its expenditure was almost the same, Rs 1.1 lakh, including Rs 49,400 spent for the Tripura polls.On Monday, TOI visited the NCPI headquarters at Hatgachha village in Andul, under Sankrail Police Station, around 30 km from Esplanade. The yellow wall around the building had the name of the NGO, Jago Biswa, written on it. The only mention of NCPI was on a banner hanging from the building’s first-floor balcony. The iron gates bore the names of Shewly Kundu and her husband, Uttiya Kundu, who are identified in party pamphlets as president and vice-president.A hand-painted signboard at the entrance described Uttiya as an editor of a Bengali newspaper, mathematics teacher, ISO auditor, health consultant and yoga volunteer. It identified his wife as an advocate at Calcutta High Court. The board also stated that both possessed diplomas in land survey.According to EC documents, Shewly is also a director of Biswabazar Private Limited and Paschim Banga Asangathita Mahila Karmi Association, both registered at the same address as NCPI.Villagers said the couple had shifted from Nadia in 2016 before starting the NGO, which trains self-help group members, and opening a home for destitute women.Speaking to reporters outside Calcutta HC, Shewly said she had recently resigned from her post in NCPI. Asked about her husband, who was reportedly in Delhi over the past weekend and played a role in the merger talks, she said, “He is still outside the state.”She insisted they have always been “NDA sympathisers”. Residents of the area and former associates, however, offered a different version.Mintu Bera, who contested the 2023 panchayat polls in Howrah on an NCPI ticket, said the party’s objective then was to cut into BJP votes. “We had fielded 11 candidates. All of us lost. But we ran an anti-BJP campaign,” he said.NCPI did not field any candidate in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the 2026 Bengal assembly polls.Several party functionaries said they were initially taken aback by the dramatic developments in Delhi on Sunday evening, but later welcomed them. Shantanu Dey, NCPI’s founder and national organising secretary, said: “I came to know about this through social media and news reports. Initially, it came as a shock because I was not consulted. But it is good news that our party is growing.”
