The Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) is a political party in India, specifically a Registered Unrecognised Political Party with the Election Commission of India (ECI). The party was founded on October 14, 2022, and was officially registered with the ECI on January 20, 2023, with its headquarters located in Sankrail, Howrah, West Bengal. The NCPI's political activities were initially concentrated in the eastern region, including Tripura, West Bengal, and Assam, with a focus on representing Bengali-speaking communities.
The party's sudden prominence in national politics is due to a recent, significant change: the merger of a rebel faction of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC). In June 2026, 20 Members of Parliament (MPs) from the AITC announced their merger with the NCPI, which instantly made the party the fifth largest in the Lok Sabha. This merger was a mechanism for the rebel MPs to form a separate bloc in Parliament and align with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), making the NCPI the second largest ally in the ruling coalition. Before this, the NCPI had a limited electoral footprint, having contested only four seats in the 2023 Tripura Legislative Assembly election. The party's ideology is described as a mix of Liberalism (Indian), Bengali nationalism, regionalism, and secularism. The NCPI connects to the concept of political defection and the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, as the merger of more than two-thirds of the AITC's parliamentary strength with the NCPI is a mechanism to avoid disqualification under the anti-defection law.