Kolkata, Sep 14 (IANS): The West Bengal BJP President and the party’s Rajya Sabha member, Samik Bhattacharya, on Monday afternoon ruled out the possibility of any of the 20 Trinamool Congress-turned-Nationalist Citizens’ Party of India (NCPI) Lok Sabha members from the state, directly joining the BJP. He stated that “the BJP they want to join may be the BJP from Mars.”
Bhattacharya’s clarification came in response to a media comment earlier in the day by one of the prominent members in the Trinamool-turned-NCPI MPs’ camp, Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia, where he claimed that as many as 17 out of 20 of his colleagues would directly join the BJP next month.
“We will never forget what happened to several BJP workers after the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections. So, there is no reason to think that if they want to join the BJP, we will accept them. The BJP they want to join may be the BJP from Mars,” quipped Bhattacharya reacting to Basunia’s claims.
The BJP’s state president also clearly said that there is no possibility of anyone from any faction in the Trinamool Congress joining the party in the near or the far future.
“The people of West Bengal have not forgotten the rule of oppression during the Trinamool Congress regime from 2011 to 2026. Now, some Lok Sabha members have broken out from the Trinamool Congress and are supporting the National Democratic Alliance. They are welcome to do so. But that does not mean that they are joining the BJP,” Bhattacharya clarified.
He also said that joining the BJP might be Basunia’s wish but there was no reason to believe that the BJP leadership would fulfil that wish.
“After May 2, 2021, as many as 56 BJP workers were killed in just 27 days by the Trinamool Congress-backed goons. Around 200 women BJP workers were gangraped. Houses of many BJP workers were demolished. Many were forced to leave their houses,” he claimed.
“We have not forgotten this. So, there is no reason to think that all those sins would be erased so easily,” Bhattacharya added.
Earlier in the day, Basunia had also said that the three Lok Sabha members in his camp, namely Abu Taher Khan from Murshidabad Constituency, Yusuf Pathan from Baharampur Constituency and Khalilur Rahman from Jangipur Constituency, all in minority-dominated Murshidabad district of West Bengal, have problems in directly joining the BJP and hence they will not join the party directly, but will continue to be part of the NDA.
Giving his reaction in the matter, Abu Taher Khan said that Basunia should only speak about himself instead of taking the responsibility for others. “We have not given him any responsibility. This was his personal opinion. Our opinion has nothing to do with it. We are neither in the BJP nor with the NDA. We are thinking of working in our own areas,” Khan said.
