The roughly hour-long meeting took place at the state secretariat, Nabanna, on Monday. Neither side issued an official statement on what was discussed. Bandyopadhyay is among the 20 MPs who left Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress a few weeks after the West Bengal Assembly elections to join the newly formed Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) — a move that has kept questions swirling ever since about the party's future direction and political alignment.

According to sources, Adhikari had originally planned to travel to Delhi himself to meet the 20 rebel MPs, but cancelled the trip at the last minute, instead informing some senior NCPI MPs over the phone that he wouldn't be coming. A senior NCPI MP said the proposed meeting between the Chief Minister and the party's MPs has been postponed for now, though all the party's MPs will still attend the scheduled NDA meeting as planned.

The Nabanna meeting has intensified talk that the newly formed NCPI could be moving closer to the BJP-led coalition at the Centre. The party had already signalled a similar direction on July 19, when its MPs attended an all-party meeting convened by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju ahead of Parliament's Monsoon Session — read at the time as an early indication of growing coordination with the ruling alliance.

Since breaking away from TMC, Bandyopadhyay and the other 19 rebel MPs have met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking recognition as a separate parliamentary group, and have also expressed a wish to sit alongside NDA's allied parties in the Lok Sabha. If the Speaker grants recognition to NCPI along with all 20 MPs, the party could become one of the NDA's largest allied groups in the Lok Sabha.

With NCPI's MPs set to attend Tuesday's NDA meeting regardless of the postponed Adhikari sit-down, the coming days are likely to bring further clarity on just how close the two sides are actually moving — and what that could mean for the balance of power both in Parliament and within West Bengal's fractured political landscape.

The rebel MPs have a petition pending before Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking formal recognition of their merger into NCPI, and are expecting a decision on it soon. One rebel MP said the merger petition remains with the Speaker and that they expect a resolution shortly.

The split traces back to TMC's defeat in this year's West Bengal Assembly elections in April, which triggered a major fracture within the party. Of TMC's 28 Lok Sabha MPs, 20 broke away from the leadership of Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee, aligning instead with NCPI — an unrecognised political party registered in Howrah, West Bengal.

Rebel MPs Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar attended Tuesday's meeting on the invitation of Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju. Opposition parties objected to their presence and staged a symbolic walkout, though they returned to the meeting a short while later.

If the Speaker grants recognition to the NCPI merger, it would mark the largest split in Trinamool Congress's history. In that scenario, these MPs would attend future NDA meetings specifically as NCPI representatives rather than as TMC dissidents. If the merger isn't approved, they would continue participating in such meetings as rebel TMC MPs instead.

The stakes extend beyond formal recognition. Whichever way the Speaker rules, the outcome is likely to deepen the political crisis already underway within Trinamool Congress and shift the balance of political equations between the treasury and opposition benches during the current Parliament session. Separately, of TMC's 80 MLAs in the West Bengal Assembly, 64 have also revolted, forming a distinct faction under the leadership of Ritabrata Banerjee.

Abhishek Banerjee has written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla demanding action against the 20 rebel MPs, according to related reporting — a sign the parliamentary fight over recognition is set to continue alongside the broader organisational battle playing out within the party.