Kolkata, Sep 22 The NCPI on Tuesday said it has decided to campaign for BJP candidates in the October 6 bypolls to Nandigram and Rejinagar assembly seats, even as the BJP’s West Bengal unit has made it clear that the support does not amount to any electoral alliance or signal any seat-sharing arrangement in future in the state.
The Nationalist Citizens Party of India emerged as a new player in Bengal politics after 20 TMC MPs broke away following the party’s defeat in the West Bengal assembly elections and joined the NCPI, subsequently extending support to the BJP-led NDA.
With the NCPI not fielding candidates in either of the two bypoll seats, its president Jyotiprakash Chattopadhyay said the party has decided to campaign for the BJP nominees as part of its alignment with the NDA.
The BJP, however, has sought to draw a clear distinction between accepting the NCPI’s campaign support and entering into any electoral understanding with it in Bengal.
The decision comes at a politically sensitive juncture for the NCPI, with the 20 MPs, who had switched over to the party, facing disqualification petitions under the anti-defection law and seeking another four weeks to respond to notices issued by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.
“It is good that the NCPI has decided to campaign for the BJP. But it does not mean that the BJP and the NCPI can have any electoral alliance in Bengal or any form of seat sharing in future,” BJP state spokesperson Sayantan Basu said.
The BJP, he said, was confident of fighting both seats on its own strength.
The distinction is significant because the NCPI’s outreach to the BJP comes amid an unresolved question over whether the NDA arrangement at the Centre would translate into an electoral partnership in West Bengal.
The issue had surfaced ahead of the forthcoming municipal elections, with NCPI leaders, including some of the former TMC MPs, indicating that the party could seek to contest the civic polls alongside the BJP.
The state BJP, however, has consistently signalled that it intends to go alone in the municipal elections, likely in December this year.
State BJP president Samik Bhattacharya said the party would contest the civic polls on its own strength, stressing that an arrangement at the national level did not automatically translate into an electoral tie-up in Bengal.
The latest bypoll understanding, therefore, appears to be a narrower tactical arrangement rather than a formal political partnership in the state.
For the NCPI, the timing is particularly consequential.
The 20 MPs quit the TMC in June after the party’s defeat in the assembly elections and joined the NCPI, extending support to the BJP-led NDA. The move triggered a legal and political battle over their status in the Lok Sabha, with TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee seeking their disqualification under the anti-defection law.
The Lok Sabha Speaker had initially issued notices to the MPs on August 26, asking them to respond within seven days. The MPs had then sought three weeks.
On September 3, Birla granted them time till September 22 after they sought an extension.
With that deadline expiring on Tuesday, the NCPI MPs have now sought another four weeks to respond, according to party sources.
The political uncertainty surrounding the MPs has also fuelled speculation about their future within the NDA.
Earlier this month, rebel TMC MP Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia had claimed that 17 of the 20 NCPI MPs would join the BJP around Durga Puja.
The claim was rejected by fellow rebel MPs and the Bengal BJP.
Against this backdrop, the decision to campaign for BJP candidates in Nandigram and Rejinagar gives the NCPI an opportunity to demonstrate its alignment with the NDA without securing a formal electoral arrangement with the BJP’s Bengal unit.
The episode also underlines the increasingly layered politics surrounding the two October 6 bypolls. The contests are taking place not merely among candidates but against the backdrop of a fractured TMC camp, the emergence of the NCPI and the BJP’s attempt to consolidate its position after its recent assembly poll victory.
For the BJP, however, the message from its Bengal unit is unambiguous: Support from the NCPI may be welcome on the campaign trail, but the party is not conceding political or electoral space in return.
(PTI News)
