Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia, who was among the Lok Sabha members to defect to the little-known Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) in June after the Trinamool Congress (TMC) lost power in West Bengal, said on Monday that 17 of them will join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) before Durga Puja in October.
He said the initial plan was to join the BJP directly, but it could not happen because of objections from Abu Taher and two other parliamentarians. “So, an arrangement was made for us to join the NCPI.”
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NCPI is an unrecognised party that contested two assembly seats in Tripura and polled a few hundred votes.
Basunia acknowledged they knew nothing about the NCPI until then. “Now, 17 NCPI MPs [members of Parliament] will join the BJP,” said Basunia, who represents Cooch Behar in Parliament. “I have to follow what the others do.”
Khan, Khalilur Rahman, and Yusuf Pathan, who represent three constituencies in West Bengal’s Muslim-majority Murshidabad district, have so far stayed away from BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) meetings even though they joined the NCPI, a constituent of the ruling grouping.
{{/usCountry}}Khan, Khalilur Rahman, and Yusuf Pathan, who represent three constituencies in West Bengal’s Muslim-majority Murshidabad district, have so far stayed away from BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) meetings even though they joined the NCPI, a constituent of the ruling grouping.
{{/usCountry}}Khan reacted to Basunia’s remarks, saying nobody authorised him to speak on their behalf. “We follow our own strategy. We have said repeatedly that we will never join the BJP.”
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The other NCPI lawmakers neither dismissed nor confirmed Basunia’s claim. Shatabdi Roy, one of the 17 lawmakers, who represents Birbhum, said she did not know if Basunia made the statement after discussing the issue with their leaders. “I am not aware of any such decision being made.”
Arup Chakraborty, the NCPI’s Bankura MP, said, “I am not aware of any decision to join the BJP. I have to follow the others.” Mitali Bag and Kalipada Soren, two other NCPI MPs, also made similar remarks.
West Bengal BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya did not rule out the possibility of the NCPI MPs joining their party. “Anybody may want to join the BJP. But whether they will be accepted or not is a decision made at our highest level,” Bhattacharya said.
The TMC swept the 2024 national polls in West Bengal, winning 29 of 42 Lok Sabha seats. One of them died after the election, and 20 of the remaining 28 joined the NCPI on June 14, questioning TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee’s leadership. Around the same time, 58 of the 80 TMC assembly members rebelled and claimed the right to the party’s election symbol.
The Mamata Banerjee-led TMC was left with nine Rajya Sabha members after Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Sushmita Dev and Prakash Chik Baraik resigned in June, joined the BJP and were reelected to the upper House on July 24. A fourth TMC Rajya Sabha member, actor Koel Mallick, also resigned from the Rajya Sabha.