Daijiworld Media Network - Kolkata
Kolkata, Sep 14: Cooch Behar MP Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia on Monday claimed that 17 Lok Sabha members who recently joined the little-known Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) will join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) before Durga Puja in October.
The MPs had defected from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and joined the NCPI in June after the party lost power in West Bengal. Basunia said their initial plan was to join the BJP directly, but objections from Abu Taher and two other parliamentarians prevented the move.
“So, an arrangement was made for us to join the NCPI,” Basunia said, adding that the lawmakers had known little about the party before joining it.
“Now, 17 NCPI MPs will join the BJP,” he said. “I have to follow what the others do.”
However, his claim has not been endorsed by several of the other NCPI lawmakers.
Khalilur Rahman Khan, who represents Murshidabad, rejected Basunia’s statement and said nobody had authorised him to speak on behalf of the other MPs. “We follow our own strategy. We have said repeatedly that we will never join the BJP,” Khan said.
Three West Bengal MPs — Khan, Khalilur Rahman and Yusuf Pathan — have so far stayed away from meetings of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), despite the NCPI being a constituent of the ruling grouping.
Shatabdi Roy, one of the 17 lawmakers and MP from Birbhum, said she was unaware of any decision to join the BJP. “I am not aware of any such decision being made,” she said.
NCPI MP from Bankura Arup Chakraborty also said he was not aware of any such decision, adding that he would follow the others. Mitali Bag and Kalipada Soren also made similar remarks.
West Bengal BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya did not rule out the possibility of the NCPI lawmakers joining the BJP but said the final decision would rest with the party’s top leadership.
“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 political developments follow a major upheaval in the TMC after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The party had won 29 of West Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats. After one of its MPs died, 20 of the remaining 28 joined the NCPI on June 14, questioning the leadership of TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
Around the same time, 58 of the TMC’s 80 MLAs rebelled and claimed the right to the party’s election symbol.
The TMC was also left with nine Rajya Sabha members after Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Sushmita Dev and Prakash Chik Baraik resigned in June, joined the BJP and were subsequently re-elected to the Upper House on July 24. Another TMC Rajya Sabha member, actor Koel Mallick, also resigned from the House.
The claims regarding the proposed BJP switch remain contested, with several NCPI MPs saying they are unaware of any such decision.