AS MANY as 17 out of 20 Trinamool Congress-turnedNationalist Citizens’ Party of India (NCPI) Lok Sabha members from West Bengal will directly join the BJP next month, claimed one of the prominent members in the NCPI MPs’ camp and the Lok Sabha member from Cooch Behar constituency,Jagadish ChandraBarma Basunia on Monday. However, he added, three Lok Sabha membersinthiscamp,namely Abu Taher Khan from Murshidabad Constituency,Yusuf PathanfromBaharampur Constituency and Khalilur RahmanfromJangipur Constituency,allinminority-dominated Murshidabad district of West Bengal, don’t want to directly join the BJP.

 

“However, despite not joining the BJP directly, the three MPs from Murshidabad district will continue to be part of the National Democratic Alliance. The remaining 17 of us will be joining the BJP directly next month before the forthcoming Durga Puja,” said Basunia on Monday. He also explained the practical problems for the three Muslim Lok Sabha members in directly joining the BJP. “They are elected representatives fromminority-dominated constituencies. So naturally, there are some problems for them in directly joining the BJP. But they will continue to be with the NDA,” he said.