Kolkata: “Seventeen of the disgruntled MPs of the Trinamool Congress party have decided to join the BJP after the Durga Puja festival,” said a senior leader of the party and one of the disgruntled MPs on Monday.
However, the party’s disgruntled MPs categorically denied his statement.
In West Bengal, the BJP came to power after defeating the Trinamool Congress in the Assembly election held last April. After the election defeat, the Trinamool Congress party split. Of the party’s 80 MLAs, 58 broke away as a separate group. Similarly, 20 of the party’s 27 Lok Sabha MPs split off separately.
At that time, reports emerged that these 20 disgruntled MPs were also set to join the BJP. However, all of them joined the little-known, registered but unrecognized Nationalist Citizens’ Party from Tripura.
A petition has been filed by the faction led by party chief Mamata Banerjee with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and the Supreme Court, urging the disqualification of these 20 MPs.
In this situation, reports have now once again emerged that they are set to join the BJP.
Regarding this, Jagadish Chandra Varma Basunia, one of the disgruntled MPs, said in an interview to reporters in Kolkata on Monday:
Out of the 20 dissatisfied Trinamool MPs, 17 of us, including me, have planned to join the BJP. Since more than two-thirds of the MPs are set to join the BJP, action cannot be taken against us under the anti-defection law. He said that the 17 MPs have finalized the plan to join the BJP.
However, Jagdish Chandra Varma rejected Basunia’s statement, saying that another dissatisfied MP, Abu Tahir Khan, had done so. Basunia has no authority to speak on behalf of all MPs. Moreover, as he said, none of us is going to join the BJP. That is certain. At the same time, Jangipur MP Khalilur Rahman and Behrampur MP Yusuf Pathan will only extend support from outside to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, he said.
Regarding this, West Bengal BJP spokesperson Debjeet Sarkar said, “The BJP has not yet received any information about dissatisfied Trinamool MPs joining the BJP. Moreover, just because they want to join, the BJP will not immediately admit them. The leadership will deliberate on this and take a final decision,” he said.
