New Delhi, June 15 -- Twenty rebel Lok Sabha MPs from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) announced on Sunday that they will merge with the registered but unrecognised Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI).

Rajya Sabha MP and senior advocate Kapil Sibal questioned the legality of the "merger". He exclaimed, "The rebels of the TMC legislative party cannot merge with a political party; that can happen only if the TMC wishes to do so! Disqualify them!"

Experts Mint spoke to echoed Kapil Sibal's observation as the "merger" with the lesser-known NCPI perplexed many.

PD Thankappan Achary, the former secretary-general of the Lok Sabha, explicitly called the merger invalid. He refused to even call it a "merger".

Achary explained that MPs or MLA...