Basunia claims 17 of 20 NCPI MPs to join BJP; fellow rebels and ruling party deny claim

PTI, September 14, 2026, Kolkata: Rebel TMC leader and Cooch Behar MP Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia on Monday claimed that 17 of the 20 Lok Sabha members aligned with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India will join the BJP before or after Durga Puja, a claim promptly disputed by fellow dissidents.

The BJP sought to distance itself from the claim, with its West Bengal unit chief Samik Bhattacharya saying the party would not take in anyone merely because they want to join it.

Basunia said 17 MPs have finalised plans to join the BJP together and the number would be sufficient to keep them outside the purview of the anti-defection law.

"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.

Of the TMC's 27 Lok Sabha MPs, 20 have joined the little-known Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) and extended their support to the saffron party just after TMC's defeat in the Assembly polls in May this year.

The TMC leadership, headed by Mamata Banerjee, has submitted an application to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and moved the apex court as well, seeking their disqualification as MPs.

However, fellow rebel MP Satabdi Roy said Basunia had made the remarks 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 Basunia had no right to speak on behalf of all the MPs who had joined the outfit.

He also rejected 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," Taher said, adding that 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.

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, meanwhile, distanced itself from the claim.

State BJP spokesperson Debjit Sarkar said he had no information about any such development and maintained that a person expressing a desire to join the BJP did not mean the party would automatically take him in.

Bhattacharya said the party would not take in anyone merely because they wanted to join, and questioned whether the BJP Basunia was referring to was "the BJP on Mars".