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17 NCPI MPs to join BJP before Durga Puja: Rebel TMC MP's big claim
Jagadish Basunia said the initial plan was to join the BJP directly, but it could not happen owing to objections from Abu Taher and two other parliamentarians.
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A rebel Trinamool Congress (TMC) Lok Sabha MP said on Monday that all but three Muslim lawmakers from the dissident group are set to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) before Durga Puja in October, ratcheting up political speculation in Delhi and Kolkata.
Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia, the MP from Cooch Behar in West Bengal, was among the 20 rebel TMC parliamentarians who joined the little-known Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) in June, after the TMC lost power in West Bengal. But their application to merge their grouping with the unrecognised party, headquartered in Howrah, has been pending before Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla since June.
Rebel MPs wary of anti-defection law
All 20 rebel MPs are also facing disqualification proceedings after TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee approached the Supreme Court last month.
Basunia said 17 MPs had finalised plans to join the BJP together and the number would be sufficient to keep them outside the purview of the anti-defection law.
“Seventeen of our MPs are going to the BJP together. Since more than two-thirds of the 20 members will be switching, the anti-defection law will not apply to us,” he told reporters.
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He said that Murshidabad MP Abu Taher Khan, Jangipur MP Khalilur Rahman, and Berhampore MP Yusuf Pathan –– all representing constituencies in Muslim-majority Murshidabad –– will not join the BJP. “They objected to the idea of joining the BJP,” Basunia said.
He said the initial plan was to join the BJP directly, but it could not happen because of objections from Abu Taher Khan and the two others. “So, an arrangement was made for us to join the NCPI,” he said.
NCPI's plans for merging with NDA
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 they joined on June 14. “Now, 17 NCPI MPs will join the BJP,” said Basunia. “I have to follow what the others do.”
If the 17 MPs finally join the BJP, it will push the party’s tally to 29 out of Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats –– its highest ever. It’ll also leave the BJP with 257 lawmakers in the Lok Sabha.
West Bengal BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya did not rule out the possibility of the NCPI MPs joining the 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.
A senior BJP functionary and national officebearer said the rebel TMC lawmakers had already indicated that they want to join the NDA. “One thing is certain that they do not want to return to the TMC… They do not want to associate with Mamata Banerjee,” the functionary said.
Khan, Rahman, and Pathan have so far stayed away from National Democratic Alliance (NDA) meetings even though they joined the NCPI, a constituent of the ruling coalition.
NCPI members were also allotted separate seats in the previous monsoon session of Parliament.
Rebel MPs steer clear of jining BJP
Khan said nobody authorised Basnia to speak on their behalf. “We follow our own strategy. We have said repeatedly that we will never join the BJP.”
The other NCPI lawmakers neither dismissed nor confirmed Basunia’s claim. Birbhum MP Shatabdi Roy, one of the 17 lawmakers, 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 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, made similar remarks.
“If our leaders join the BJP then I will have to do the same,” Soren said.
“This decision can be taken only by our leaders,” said Bag.
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TMC MLA Kunal Ghosh slammed the lawmakers, saying they “could become MPs only because Mamata Banerjee fielded them” in the elections. “Ever since they left, they have been moving from door to door just to hang on to their chairs. First it was NCPI and now it is BJP,” he said.
The TMC swept the 2024 Lok Sabha 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 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.
