For the past two days, a video from the Parliament House complex has been going viral on social media. In the video, journalists repeatedly ask Yusuf Pathan, former Indian cricketer and Baharampur MP, whether he is returning to power with Mamata Banerjee.
But ignoring all the sharp questions of the journalists, Yusuf Pathan quietly moves ahead. However, on Wednesday, when a journalist repeatedly repeated the same question, he said in a bitter tone, “I will not say anything.” Let us tell you that Yusuf Pathan is among the 20 rebel MPs who recently left Mamata Banerjee’s party Trinamool Congress (TMC) and joined the ‘Nationalist Citizens Party of India’ (NCPI). Along with this, all these 20 rebel MPs also announced their support to the Narendra Modi government at the Centre.
PM Modi stays away from the meeting, but confusion persists regarding the NDA
Now, three prominent Muslim MPs, including Yusuf Pathan, among these 20 rebel leaders, have categorically refused to openly support the NDA government at the center. Their changed stance and U-turn are becoming a major puzzle for the BJP and other parties in politics from Delhi to West Bengal.
These three rebel TMC MPs belong to the Murshidabad district of West Bengal. These leaders include Abu Taher Khan, Jangipur MP Khalilur Rahman, and Baharampur MP Yusuf Pathan. All represent crucial Muslim-majority Lok Sabha seats in Murshidabad district. The three openly announced their decision on Tuesday when they skipped the NDA Parliamentary Party meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi. Surprisingly, however, these MPs did attend a coordination meeting in Delhi with Bengal leader Suvendu Adhikari to discuss development projects in their respective constituencies.
Know who these three rebel MPs are and what is their political journey.
Abu Taher Khan is a seasoned politician who began his political career with the Congress Party and joined the TMC in 2019. He served as an MLA from Naoda from 2001 to 2019 and then became a Lok Sabha MP for the Murshidabad seat for the first time in 2019, a seat he retained in the 2024 elections.
Meanwhile, Khalilur Rahman is a well-known industrialist from Murshidabad and a two-time MP from the Jangipur Lok Sabha seat. Meanwhile, former cricket legend Yusuf Pathan joined the TMC just before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and defeated Congress veteran Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in a close contest in the Baharampur seat.
‘We will not support anything against Muslims’
Speaking to The Indian Express, Yusuf Pathan stated clearly, “We will not join or support the NDA or the BJP. But we will remain part of the NCPI. We also have an answer to our voters. We will not vote in Parliament for anything that is against the interests of the country’s Muslims. However, we have met with Bengal leaders on issues related to the development of our region.”
Speaking to reporters outside Parliament, Yusuf Pathan also explained why he attended the meeting with the Chief Minister. He said, “I raised the issue of the immense hardship faced by those who have been deleted from the voter list in West Bengal. The number of such affected people is over 2.5 million. I requested the Chief Minister to establish a special tribunal to expedite this process. He assured me that he would do his best.”
Fear of political gains and losses and future strategy
Sources close to these three MPs say that these leaders fear that openly supporting the NDA or the BJP within Parliament would provoke a sharp and negative reaction among voters in their home regions and Muslim-majority constituencies. Furthermore, they worry that if they break away from the rebel TMC faction, they could face significant political action against them by the West Bengal government and its political establishment.
There is also a discussion in the political circles that all these MPs want to contest the next Lok Sabha elections in the year 2029 from their old seats under the banner of NCPI, for which they will have to retain the support of their local Muslim vote bank at all costs.
Opposition and opposition parties launched a scathing attack
Following these statements, reactions from political parties are rapidly emerging. A senior Congress leader from Murshidabad claimed that since these MPs left the TMC and joined the rebel camp, there has been widespread anger among the people in their constituencies against them. If they now support the BJP-led NDA, they will lose their entire support base in the district.
Meanwhile, TMC MP Saugata Roy, targeting these leaders, said that these three MPs have completely failed to take strong and clear decisions on any issue. Meanwhile, West Bengal BJP President Sukanta Majumdar quipped that only their party leadership can explain why these NCPI MPs are not supporting the NDA, but the public will never accept such double standards. CPI-M leader Sujan Chakraborty and Congress spokesperson Soumya H Roy also accused these leaders, saying that all this is a big political game to mislead the minorities and indirectly benefit the BJP.