Rebel Trinamool Congress leader and Cooch Behar MP Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia on Monday (September 14, 2026) claimed that 17 of the 20 Lok Sabha members aligned with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) 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.
Mr. 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 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 Supreme Court as well, seeking their disqualification as MPs.
However, fellow rebel MP Satabdi Roy said Mr. 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 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, meanwhile, distanced itself from the claim.
West Bengal 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.
Mr. Bhattacharya said the party would not take in anyone merely because they wanted to join, and questioned whether the BJP Mr. Basunia was referring to was “the BJP on Mars”.
“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,” he said.
On June 14, 20 dissident TMC Lok Sabha MPs announced their merger with the little-known NCPI and extended support to the BJP-led 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 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.
Published – September 14, 2026 05:18 pm IST
