New Delhi:
In 2024, the undivided Trinamool Congress blamed Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury for derailing seat-sharing talks with the Congress for the Lok Sabha polls. The acrimony stemmed from the incessant verbal salvos he had unleashed on Mamata Banerjee. Over two years later, and after the Trinamool’s three-way split, the politician has decided to bury the hatchet. “Forget the old days,” he remarked on Thursday, inviting the former chief minister not only to join his party but also to lead its Bengal unit.
“I advise Mamata Banerjee…and I also ask our high command…Why doesn’t Mamata Banerjee join the Congress? Why doesn’t she join the Congress with all the remaining MPs and MLAs of her party?” he said at a press conference.
The Congress leader’s offer comes amid a rebellion-induced existential crisis that Mamata Banerjee and what remains of her party have been negotiating.
After the Trinamool Congress lost the Bengal assembly elections in May, a group of 60 MPs broke away and declared that it was the real Trinamool. The shock had not even sunk in among Trinamool leaders when over 20 MPs formed a separate bloc, merged with a little-known political outfit and extended support to the National Democratic Alliance.
Also read: Months After Seat Talks Failed, Congress Leader’s Question To Mamata Banerjee
Chowdhury said that since Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool was an offshoot of the Congress, she shouldn’t have a “problem” in returning to the party.
“If she is a product of the Congress, then there is no problem with her joining the Congress,” he said.
He, however, has put forth a condition.
“Do you know what Mamata Banerjee’s baggage is? By removing that baggage, Mamata Banerjee should join the Congress Party directly,” he said, apparently alluding to her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee.
Many of those who rebelled against Mamata Banerjee had blamed her nephew for the three-way Trinamool split.
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Mamata Banerjee had begun her political career in the 1970s as a Congress leader. In 1998, she broke away from the party and formed the Trinamool Congress. In 2011, her party ended the Left Front’s 34-year rule.
Chowdhury said the Congress has always backed Mamata Banerjee.
“Not just today, but if you look at the history of the last few years — you will see that in 2001, 2009, 2010, the 2009 Lok Sabha, in 2011, the Congress supported Mamata Banerjee. They supported her in 2009 and 2011,” he said.
“This means that the Congress has been helping Mamata Banerjee. Even today, those who feel that Mamata Banerjee is in danger, who do they go to first? Sonia Gandhi,” he added.
He said the Congress never opposed Mamata Banerjee. “On the contrary, we were opposed by Mamata Banerjee,” he alleged.
The offer came just a few days after Banerjee’s faction extended support to the Congress candidate in the Nandigram bypoll.
Also read: “Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury The Reason”: Derek O’Brien On Trinamool-Congress Impasse
“In Bengal, we would work under you in the Congress,” he added.
Reacting to the comments, Sougata Roy, one of the few MPs still loyal to Mamata Banerjee, said the party would consider such a proposal only if it came from the top leadership.
“He (Chowdhury) has said what he felt. We have nothing to say. TMC (Trinamool) is a separate party now. If the Congress wants to come with an official proposal, we will discuss the matter in the party. The TMC is very much part of the INDIA alliance,” Roy was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
The BJP said the party Mamata Banerjee founded has no purpose now.
“The TMC was born out of the Congress to fight the CPI(M). The TMC came to power on that plank. Now that the TMC itself is out of power, they have no other purpose left,” BJP West Bengal spokesperson Debjit Sarkar said.
