Rebel Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia on Monday claimed that 17 of the 20 MPs who had broken away from the Opposition party and joined the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) were ready to join the BJP either before or after the Durga Puja festivities. The NCPI is a little-known outfit that these Rebel MPs joined in June before declaring their support for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. However, other NCPI MPs said they were unaware of any such plan and Abu Taher Khan (Murshidabad) who is one of the three Muslim MPs in the group along with Yusuf Pathan (Baharampur) and Khalilur Rehman (Jangipur) said they would neither join the BJP nor support the NDA. “Who asked him (Basunia) to become our spokesperson? We have already spoken about our stand. We do not need him to speak for us. We will decide our course of action. We (the three MPs from the minority community) have made it clear that we will not support the NDA, and there is no question of joining the BJP. We are not aware of any such plan or move,” Khan told The Indian Express. Basunia told reporters in Cooch Behar, “We are 20 NCPI MPs now, of whom 17 will join the BJP soon. The plan is ready. It will be either before or after Durga Puja. The two-thirds figure will be around 14, but we are 17 and the anti-defection law will not apply to us. Once in the BJP, we will work under their guidance.” “Three MPs — Khan, Pathan and Rehman — will remain in the NCPI and support the NDA. They will not join the BJP. They may be given (Cabinet) portfolios. As they represent minority-dominated areas, they may face problems if they join the BJP,” he added. Basunia said the BJP had helped facilitate the group’s move to the NCPI after they decided to leave the TMC. “Under the leadership of (Union Minister) Bhupendra Yadav, chief minister Suvendu Adhikari and Union Minister amit shah , we merged with the NCPI. We held meetings at Yadav’s residence a number of times. Initially, we thought we would join the BJP, but since the three MPs said that they could not join the BJP, the plan did not work. Then the BJP leadership asked us to join the NCPI to avoid falling under the anti-defection law. We all did what we were told,” Basunia said. BJP, other ‘rebels’ keep distance The claim, however, was immediately disputed. “We are not aware of any such issue. Basunia has to take responsibility for his own statement,” BJP spokesperson Debjit Sarkar told reporters. Basunia’s remarks have seemingly sparked internal dissent within the BJP as well, with the party’s Baranagar MLA, Sajal Ghosh, saying the entry of rebels “would be hard to accept”. “If our party takes a decision, we will all abide by it. There are national political compulsions and policies. But if the MP from our area (Sudip Bandopadhyay) joins the BJP, it will be hard to accept it in my heart,” he said. Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, one of the prominent faces of the rebel group, also declined to comment on Basunia’s claim. Bankura MP Arup Roy said he was not aware of any such decision, while Jhargram MP Kalipada Soren said he did not have a “personal opinion” on the issue. “I will do what everyone else does,” he added. The uncertainty over the NCPI’s future comes at a time when the BJP’s Bengal unit itself has signalled that its alliance with the party at the national level may not translate into an electoral tie-up in West Bengal. BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya has said the party will contest the forthcoming Kolkata and Howrah municipal elections on its own, arguing that an arrangement in Delhi does not automatically mean an alliance in Bengal.
