Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 14: Seventeen of the 20 Lok Sabha members of the little-known Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), who were all originally elected on the Trinamool Congress ticket but rebelled after the party’s rout in the West Bengal Assembly elections earlier this year, will soon join the BJP, one of the rebel MPs claimed on Monday.
He was. However, promptly refuted by another party colleague who said no such decision had yet been taken by the group, while three Muslim members among the 20 rebel MPs rejected the suggestion stating that there was no question of their joining the BJP, though they might extend “issue-based support” to the NDA government at the Centre and the BJP government in the state.
The BJP itself also distanced itself from the claim stating that their desire to join the ruling party did not automatically mean that they would be accepted in the saffron brigade. The Party’s West Bengal unit chief Samik Bhattacharya said the people in the state had not yet forgotten the “atrocities” they committed on the public as TMC members and the BJP might not be willing to take them within the fold.
The claim of the entire group joining the BJP was made by Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia, the rebel TMC leader and MP from Cooch Behar, who said on Monday that 17 of them as a group would join the ruling party before or soon after the coming Durga Puja. He said all plans have been finalised by the 17 NCPI MPs to join the BJP and the numbers are enough for them to evade the anti-defection law. He said the remaining three MPs — Abu Taher Khan, Khalilur Rahaman and Yusuf Pathan — would extend an outside support to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
“We are 17 MPs who 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.
If the 17 NCPI MPs indeed join the BJP, then it would raise the saffron party’s tally in the Lok Sabha to 257. The BJP had won 240 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
However, Satabdi Roy refuted Basunia’s claims and said the Cooch Behar MP made the statement in his personal capacity and no such decision has been taken by the group so far. Another rebel MP, Abu Taher Khan, who is also part of the NCPI group, said Mr Basunia had no right to speak on behalf of all the MPs who had joined the outfit.
He also rejected Mr Basunia’s claim that he, Jangipur MP Khalilur Rahaman and Baharampur MP Yusuf Pathan would support the BJP-led NDA while staying outside the BJP. “We will not go to the BJP. We will not go to the NDA. This is clear,” Mr Taher said, adding that Mr Basunia’s statement was his personal view. The parliamentarian from the Murshidabad Lok Sabha seat said he and the two MPs could attend government meetings if invited by the Prime Minister or Chief Minister for development-related issues, but would not participate in BJP or NDA meetings.
Mr Basunia had claimed the three MPs belonging to the minority community would not formally join the BJP because of the political dynamics in their constituencies, but would support the NDA from outside and could be given important responsibilities or portfolios.
The BJP leaders, including Bhattacharya, have also distanced themselves from Basunia’s remarks and said they have no knowledge about this. “As far as I know, no one from the TMC or NCPI is joining the BJP. People of the state have not forgotten the kind of atrocities these leaders and MPs have done during the TMC regime,” BJP spokesperson Debjit Sarkar said.
Earlier this year after the assembly election results were declared in West Bengal, a rebellion began in the TMC with 20 of the 27 TMC members quitting the party and joining the lesser-known NCPI, extending their support to the NDA.
They subsequently sought recognition as a separate parliamentary group. The rebel camp has maintained that the move constitutes a valid merger and has invoked the two-thirds provision under the anti-defection law. With 20 MPs in the group, at least 14 would be required to meet that threshold. Mr Basunia said the MPs had originally intended to move directly to the BJP but were brought into the NCPI after three minority MPs were unwilling to join.
The TMC leadership, headed by the former chief minister Mamata Banerjee, has submitted an application to the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and moved the Supreme Court as well, seeking their disqualification as MPs.
The legal status of the group, however, remains contested. Lok Sabha records continue to list the 20 MPs as TMC members, and their claim for recognition as a separate NCPI group has not been finally settled. TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee had approached the Supreme Court seeking expeditious disposal of his petition seeking disqualification of the 20 MPs under the anti-defection law.
The Lok Sabha Secretariat subsequently issued notices to the MPs on August 26, seeking their replies to the disqualification petitions. The MPs sought three weeks’ additional time, which was granted by Speaker Om Birla, with the revised deadline extending until September 22.
The Supreme Court has also issued notices to the 20 MPs in the matter. Mr Basunia and his wife, TMC MLA Sangeeta Roy, faced protests when they returned to his ancestral home in Sitai in Cooch Behar amid anger over his political shift. A TMC office near his residence was also allegedly set on fire. Mr Basunia has maintained that he is no longer with the TMC and is aligned with the NDA.