Kolkata, June 12 (IANS) Rebel Trinamool Congress MP Jagadish Barma Basunia on Friday confirmed the validity of the letter containing signatures of 19 party MPs, including him, who reportedly claim to be the main and majority bloc of the party in the Lok Sabha.

According to Basunia, the dissent within the Trinamool had erupted before the results of the Assembly polls, since MPs and senior leaders of the party were not consulted before giving tickets to the candidates.

In an exclusive interaction with IANS, Basunia admitted signing a letter that carries the signatures of 18 other Trinamool rebel MPs, mentioning the reason for forming a separate faction in the Lok Sabha.

“Our demand is that we are the ‘real Trinamool Congress’ and should be given recognition,” he said.

About reasons for leaving party supremo Mamata Banerjee’s side, he said: “One needs to look at the reasons from before the party lost the Assembly polls. The process followed by the party for the selection of candidates for the polls was wrong, because of which everybody is angry.”

“None of the MPs knew which MLA within their constituency would be given a ticket, and only came to know when the announcement was made. All the MPs have been angry due to this,” he alleged.

“After 2021-2022, the grip of the Trinamool Congress was no longer with Mamata Banerjee and instead had totally gone to (her nephew and General Secretary) Abhishek Banerjee. All decisions related to the party were taken by Abhishek and I-PAC only; not even any senior leader was contacted. That is why the MLAs and MPs have been frustrated.”

Basunia blamed Abhishek Banerjee for Trinamool’s defeat in the Assembly elections. “We would not have been defeated in this manner if the candidates were chosen after proper consultation with party leaders,” he stressed.

He refused allegations of the rebel MPs forming a “B-Team” of the BJP, saying: “Let people say whatever they want but we ourselves have taken this decision. BJP didn’t have anything to do. After taking the decision, we met Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari since the state is now being ruled by the BJP government.”

“Therefore, to initiate any kind of developmental work in Bengal, we have to go to him (Adhikari) only,” he added.

The rebel Trinamool MP confirmed to have spoken to all the MPs who have signed the letter and asserted that nobody will back out later.

“We are doing this for the people, as they have voted for us for development in the state. Bengal does not have a Trinamool government anymore, so if we work in coordination with the BJP government, we will still be able to work for the people,” he said.

–IANS

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