Adhir Chowdhury urges Mamata to return to Cong, offers to accept her Bengal leadership

Kolkata:  In a gesture that baffled many,  senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has urged Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee to return to the Congress, saying the party is willing to accept her leadership in West Bengal.

Chowdhury’s remarks came shortly after Mamata attended a meeting of the INDIA bloc convened by the Congress leadership in Delhi. The meeting also saw Mamata sharing a warm exchange with Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi.  Mamata on her part has been facing serious desertions from her party including several MPs who switched to a news party to support the BJP-led government and some resigned their seats necessitating bypoll in their constituencies. 

The appeal has took political circles by surprise, particularly because Chowdhury has long been one of Mamata’s most vocal critics in West Bengal.

Chowdhury said Mamata should shed the political burden that was creating difficulties for her and join the Congress along with the remaining TMC MLAs and MPs. He argued that there was no need for her to pursue a separate political movement at this stage.

Speaking in Berhampore, Chowdhury said the TMC was also facing a major crisis following its defeat in the Assembly elections. Since the party is part of the Congress-led INDIA bloc at the national level, he said Mamata should return to the Congress and work with the party in West Bengal.

He added that the Congress was prepared to recognise Mamata’s leadership in the state and work together with her.

Chowdhury has for years been among Mamata’s strongest critics within the Congress. Although the Congress and TMC have worked together nationally as constituents of the INDIA bloc, Chowdhury has consistently opposed the TMC in West Bengal.

His reference to Mamata shedding her political “burden” is being seen as an apparent reference to TMC national general secretary and Mamata’s nephew, Abhishek Banerjee. Some leaders who left the TMC following the Assembly election defeat had blamed Abhishek for the party’s electoral setback.

Mamata began her political career with the Congress before leaving the party in 1998 to establish the Trinamool Congress. In 2012, the TMC also withdrew its support from the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre.