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

Rebel Trinamool Congress leader Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia claimed 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.”

However, the BJP’s West Bengal unit chief Samik Bhattacharya said that “no one from the TMC or NCPI is joining” the Hindutva party.

“People of the state have not forgotten the kind of atrocities these leaders and MPs have done during the TMC regime,” Bhattacharya was quoted as saying by PTI.

He also said that the BJP would not take in anyone “merely because they want to join it”.

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

He 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.

However, fellow rebel...

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