States » EastPosted at: Oct 1 2026 10:32PM


Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury pitches Congress return to Mamata amid TMC split

Kolkata, Oct 1 (UNI) Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Thursday made a direct appeal to TMC supremo and former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to return to the Congress along with her remaining MLAs and MPs, offering to accept her leadership in West Bengal.
Chowdhury’s proposal came amid a deepening crisis within the TMC following its defeat in the 2026 Assembly elections. The party won 80 of the 294 Assembly seats, while the BJP emerged as the largest party. However, the TMC’s legislature party itself split, with 58 rebel MLAs backing expelled leader Ritabrata Banerjee as Leader of the Opposition and the Assembly Speaker recognising the rival bloc.
“There is no need for any separate entity at this moment. Not much is left of the TMC after its defeat in the Assembly elections,” Chowdhury said, referring to the split within the party.
“We would urge Mamata Banerjee to join the Congress along with all the leftover MLAs and MPs. We would accept her leadership in Bengal and work with her,” he said.
Banerjee had left the Congress and launched the Trinamul Congress in 1998. The party subsequently emerged as the principal challenger to the Left Front and ended its 34-year rule in Bengal in 2011.
A parallel rebellion has since emerged among TMC MPs, with the rebel parliamentary group challenging Banerjee’s leadership and joining the obscure NCPI and extending support to the BJP-led NDA at the Centre.
Chowdhury linked his appeal to Banerjee’s recent association with the Congress-led INDIA alliance.
“As she has taken shelter in the Congress-led INDIA alliance, she should join the party. In Bengal, we would work under you in Congress,” he said.
He also urged Banerjee to join the Congress “leaving behind her baggage”, an apparent reference to her nephew and TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
TMC MP Sougata Roy, however, said the party would consider the proposal only if it came formally from the Congress leadership.
“He has said what he felt. We have nothing to say. TMC is a separate party now. If 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 said.
On Chowdhury’s reference to “baggage”, Roy said there could be no decision concerning the TMC without Abhishek Banerjee. “He is our leader and national general secretary,” Roy maintained.
The BJP sought to use the exchange to argue that the TMC had lost its political relevance. West Bengal BJP spokesperson Debjit Sarkar said the party had “no other purpose left”.
“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,” Sarkar said.
The Congress-TMC exchange has opened a new dimension in Bengal’s opposition politics, even as the TMC battles simultaneous challenges to its organisational identity, legislative strength and parliamentary leadership. Chowdhury’s proposal also carries a striking historical irony: 28 years after Banerjee walked out of the Congress to build the TMC, he is now asking her to make the journey back.
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