Rebel Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Jagadish Basunia claimed on Monday that 17 members of the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) will join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) before Durga Puja in October. Basunia, who defected to NCPI in June after the TMC lost power in West Bengal, said the initial plan was to join the BJP directly, but it could not happen due to objections from Abu Taher and two other parliamentarians. "So, an arrangement was made for us to join the NCPI," he said, representing Cooch Behar in Parliament.

The NCPI, an unrecognised party that contested two assembly seats in Tripura and polled a few hundred votes, is now at the center of a political realignment. Basunia acknowledged they knew nothing about the NCPI until then. "Now, 17 NCPI MPs will join the BJP," he said, adding that he has to follow what the others do. However, Khan, Khalilur Rahman, and Yusuf Pathan, who represent three constituencies in West Bengal’s Muslim-majority Murshidabad district, have so far stayed away from BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) meetings, even though they joined the NCPI, a constituent of the ruling grouping.

Khan reacted to Basunia’s remarks, saying nobody authorised him to speak on their behalf. "We follow our own strategy. We have said repeatedly that we will never join the BJP," he said. The other NCPI lawmakers neither dismissed nor confirmed Bas,unia’s claim. Shatabdi Roy, one of the 17 lawmakers, who represents Birbhum, said she did not know if Basunia made the statement after discussing the issue with their leaders. "I am not aware of any such decision being made," she said. Arup Chakraborty, the NCPI’s Bankura MP, said, "I am not aware of any decision to join the BJP. I have to follow the others." Mitali Bag and Kalipada Soren, two other NCPI MPs, also made similar remarks.

West Bengal BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya did not rule out the possibility of the NCPI MPs joining their party. "Anybody may want to join the BJP. But whether they will be accepted or not is a decision made at our highest level," Bhattacharya said. The TMC swept the 2024 national polls in West Bengal, winning 29 of 42 Lok Sabha seats. One of them died after the election, and 20 of the remaining 28 joined the NCPI on June 14, questioning TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee’s leadership. Around the same time, 58 of the 80 TMC assembly members rebelled and claimed the right to the party’s election symbol.

The Mamata Banerjee-led TMC was left with nine Rajya Sabha members after Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Sushmita Dev and Prakash Chik Baraik resigned in June, joined the BJP and were reelected to the upper House on July 24. A fourth TMC Rajya Sabha member, actor Koel Mallick, also resigned from the Rajya Sabha. What remains unknown is whether the NCPI MPs will indeed join the BJP, and if so, how the party will handle their transition from an unrecognised entity to a potential political ally. The situation continues to evolve, with no official confirmation from the NCPI or the BJP on the matter.