Cooch Behar MP Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia has claimed that 17 of the 20 Lok Sabha members who left the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and joined the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) in June will join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) before Durga Puja in October.
Basunia, who was among the TMC lawmakers who moved to the little-known NCPI after the party’s defeat in West Bengal, said the initial plan was for the MPs to join the BJP directly. However, he claimed that objections from Abu Taher and two other parliamentarians led to an alternative arrangement under which they joined the NCPI.
“Now, 17 NCPI MPs will join the BJP,” Basunia said, adding that he would follow the decision taken by the others.
Basunia says NCPI was an interim arrangement
According to Basunia, the lawmakers were unfamiliar with the NCPI before joining it.
The NCPI is an unrecognised political party that had contested two Assembly seats in Tripura and received only a few hundred votes.
Basunia said the arrangement was made after the plan for a direct switch to the BJP could not go ahead.
However, his claim has not been confirmed by the other NCPI lawmakers.
Several NCPI MPs deny knowledge of BJP move
Murshidabad MPs Khalilur Rahman, Khan and Yusuf Pathan have so far stayed away from BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) meetings despite the NCPI being a constituent of the ruling grouping.
Khalilur Rahman rejected Basunia’s claim that the lawmakers would collectively join the BJP, saying nobody had authorised him to speak on their behalf.
“We follow our own strategy. We have said repeatedly that we will never join the BJP,” Khan said.
Shatabdi Roy, an NCPI 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.
Bankura MP Arup Chakraborty also said he did not know about any decision to join the BJP, while Mitali Bag and Kalipada Soren made similar remarks.
West Bengal BJP keeps door open
West Bengal BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya did not rule out the possibility of the NCPI MPs joining the party but said any such decision would have to be approved by the BJP’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.
How 20 TMC MPs moved to NCPI
The TMC won 29 of West Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats in the 2024 general election. One of its MPs died after the election, leaving 28 members.
On June 14, 20 of the remaining TMC Lok Sabha MPs joined the NCPI and questioned the leadership of TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
Around the same time, 58 of the TMC’s 80 Assembly members also rebelled and claimed the right to the party’s election symbol.
The developments triggered a major political crisis within the TMC, with the possibility of further defections remaining a key issue in West Bengal politics.
