Amid speculation over TMC-Congress merger, Mamata returns to Kolkata alone
Kolkata: Amid speculation that former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee, also the Trinamool Congress’ national general secretary, are exploring the possibility of remerging the party with the Congress, Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday returned to Kolkata from New Delhi, while her nephew remained in the national capital.
Speculation over a possible re-merger of the Trinamool Congress with the Congress gained momentum following Mamata Banerjee’s one-to-one meeting with Congress leader Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday and Abhishek Banerjee’s separate one-to-one meeting with Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi on Wednesday.
After Mamata Banerjee returned to Kolkata, waiting media persons at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport asked her about the possibility of the Trinamool Congress remerging with the Congress.
However, the former Chief Minister hurriedly got into her vehicle and left the spot without uttering a word.
Mamata Banerjee founded the Trinamool Congress on January 1, 1998, after breaking away from the Congress, accusing the leadership of the country’s oldest political party of being reluctant to organise a movement against the then CPI(M)-led Left Front government in West Bengal.
However, Ritabrata Banerjee, leader of the new but majority bloc of the Trinamool Congress Legislative Party in the West Bengal Assembly and also the official Leader of the Opposition in the House, categorically denied any possibility of a re-merger between the Trinamool Congress and the Congress.
“Our bloc is the main Trinamool Congress in the West Bengal Assembly. We started with 58 legislators and today the number is 64. I heard that the majority of the 28 Lok Sabha members of the Trinamool Congress are also in the rebel bloc now. So, since we are the main Trinamool Congress, there is no question of our party remerging with the Congress,” Ritabrata said.
Even state Congress leaders in West Bengal appeared sceptical about the possibility of a re-merger between the Trinamool Congress and the Congress.
According to West Bengal Congress President Suvankar Sarkar, there are two key factors involved in such a possibility.
“First, anyone who is willing to come back to the Congress will have to accept Rahul Gandhi as his or her supreme leader. Secondly, if anyone thinks that he or she will use the Congress as a shield against legal complications because of his or her past acts of corruption, that will not be acceptable,” Sarkar said.