20 rebel TMC MPs who had merged with Tripura-based NCPI to join BJP

Rebel Trinamool Congress leader Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia said on Monday that 17 of the 20 party MPs, who had merged with the Tripura-based Nationalist Citizens Party of India, will join the Bharatiya Janata Party in October, reported PTI.

“We are 17 MPs going to the BJP together,” Basunia was quoted as saying by the news agency. “Since more than two-thirds of the 20 members will be moving, the anti-defection law will not apply to us.”

He said that the MPs will join the Hindutva party “before or after Durga Puja”, which will begin on October 6 and conclude on October 10 this year.

Basunia added that Abu Taher Khan, Khalilur Rahaman and Yusuf Pathan would not formally join the BJP but extend support to the National Democratic Alliance. They “may be given important responsibilities or portfolios”, said the Cooch Behar MP.

Twenty of the TMC’s 28 Lok Sabha MPs had in June announced a merger with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India. The group has been supporting the NDA in the Lower House of Parliament.

The Nationalist Citizens Party of India did not have any MPs before the merger.

Ahead of the Monsoon Session of Parliament in July, the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla accepted the request of the rebel MPs to sit separately in the Lok...

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