Is Mamata Banerjee merging TMC with Congress?
There's an intense buzz that Mamata Banerjee, who has effectively lost control of her Trinamool Congress to rebels, might merge the party with the Congress. Her prolonged stay in New Delhi, her nephew Abhishek Banerje's meeting with Rahul Gandhi, and her meeting with Sonia Gandhi, are all unusual.
Will it be Mamata Banerjee's ghar wapsi? That's the question that is being asked. Mamata created the Trinamool Congress (TMC) after quitting the Congress in 1997. What wouldn't have even been considered a hypothesis a week ago, is now an intense buzz. But we still prefer to go with a question mark, until anything is confirmed. Will Mamata Banerjee merge her TMC with the Congress?
Nothing is unusual in politics. An unusual chain of events has led to the increasing chatter in the media corridors of New Delhi. Consider this. Mamata Banerjee was in New Delhi while she's facing a full-blown rebellion by her MLAs in West Bengal. Her councillors and local leaders are being attacked too. Crisis is in Bengal, but she's in Delhi. Why?
Mamata, along with her nephew and TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee, attended the INDIA bloc meeting of opposition parties. When was the last time that Mamata attended an INDIA bloc meeting? The TMC, the third-biggest Opposition party with 29 Lok Sabha seats and 12 Rajya Sabha seats, forged its own line of attack against the BJP-led NDA at the Centre. Mamata didn't get along with the Congress-led alliance, so why this bonhomie now?
Mamata Banerjee had a one-on-one meeting with Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday, the first in years. The meeting was reportedly on "the future of the TMC and alliance politics". On Wednesday, Abhishek Banerjee met Rahul Gandhi, the de facto chief of the Congress. Mamata was reported to meet Sonia again on Wednesday. What's about these back-to-back meetings?
Mamata Banerjee was the chief minister of West Bengal for 15 consecutive years, and her TMC enjoyed unchallenged rule in West Bengal all that while. The TMC leaders ruled through corruption, coercion, persecution and repression, and the party seemed steel-clad. No amount of storms, it seemed, could do it any damage.
Mamata emerged as the undisputed leader of Bengal. So much was her strength within Bengal, that she wanted to play a leading national role through the power of her MPs. But everything changed on May 4.
The leader who once seemed unshakeable and the party that was thought to be invincible in Bengal were swept away in a BJP wave. It was as much a vote against Mamata and her TMC as for the BJP. Her over a decade of misrule became her nemesis. The TMC was reduced to just 80 in Bengal's 294-member Assembly.
India Today TV's Senior Editor at the Kolkata Bureau, Indrajit Kundu, on Tuesday said in a broadcast that the option of the TMC merging with the Congress, he was told, "has been suggested to Mamata Banerjee... amid a very serious situation at hand".
The rebellion against the leadership, especially Abhishek, was as instantaneous as the public anger that her local leaders faced. Over 100 TMC councillors resigned, Ritabrata Banerjee led over 60 MLAs to become the LoP in the Assembly against Mamata's wishes, and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar claimed the support of over 20 of the party's 28 MPs and pledged support to the BJP-led NDA.
Within a month of the election results, Mamata, from being the unquestioned matriarch of the TMC, lost control of the party that she founded in 1998. She started a legal battle in the Calcutta High Court. But going by the precedents of the Shiv Sena and the NCP, she must have known that she didn't have much of a chance.
The numbers, both in the legislative party and the parliamentary party, the rebels commanded would have nullified the anti-defection law.
WHO IS MERGING WITH CONGRESS, ASKS TMC REBEL RITABRATA
However, Bengal LoP Ritabrata Banerjee, who rebelled from the party, threw a spanner amid the merger buzz. He claimed that 64 rebel MLAs and around 20 MPs would not support any move to merge the TMC with the Congress.
"The total number of TMC MLAs in the rebel camp has increased to 64," said Ritabrata Banerjee. On being asked about the chances of Mamata Banerjee merging the TMC with the Congress, Ritabrata said, "Our MLAs won't. There are 20 MPs who won't merge with the Congress, so who is merging? There is no question of such a merger with the Congress?"
So, what is her best option here to prevent the rebels from snatching from her the party she founded three decades ago after quitting Congress? It's a merger with the Congress, suggest many. That way, she might be able to fulfil her aspiration of getting to play a role in national politics, and secure some role for her nephew, Abhishek, who would have otherwise been a castaway.
Will Mamata, the forever streetfighter, actually end up merging her TMC with the Congress? Seems very unlikely given her fighting spirit. But this could be the only way out for her, given how embattled she is right now. Will she merge the TMC with the Congress? Nothing can be said till that is actually announced.
However, we aren't writing this in the realm of speculation. There has been intense discussion on the subject.
SANJAY RAUT PITCHED FOR MERGER OF BREAKAWAY PARTIES WITH CONGRESS
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut on June 5 pitched for all breakaway parties of the Congress to merge back with the party, arguing that it was the need of the hour if the Opposition wanted to resist the Bharatiya Janata Party's dominance.
Speaking to India Today TV's Sahil Joshi, Rajya Sabha MP Raut said this was a solution to strengthen unity among Opposition parties. "TMC, NCP and other breakaway factions of the Congress should merge into their parent party," he said.
Raut argued that a stronger Congress would be better placed to steer the Opposition, adding that the BJP wanted to eliminate smaller regional parties from India's political landscape.
IS CONGRESS ON A 'SAVE TRINAMOOL CONGRESS' MISSION?
The likelihood of a TMC-Congress merger was the hot topic of discussion on Wednesday.
"Has the Congress launched a save Trinamool Congress operation from sinking? Otherwise, inactive Sonia Gandhi meeting both Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee separately within the span of a few hours tells a story in the making. Merger of both parties or persuading Abhishek's to step aside to save the party," asked senior journalist Prabhu Chawla in a post on X on Wednesday.
Journalist-author Saba Naqvi too weighed in on the issue. "On the Congress-TMC merger. Would elevate TMC from mess and destruction in the state to a national role in sync with Congress' positions on democracy deficits. It would be good for Congress that would get access to TMC's large vote..." she said.
In his June 10 Opinion piece on India Today Digital, senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai asked if the opposition should focus on rebuilding the INDIA bloc, or should Congress and its many offshoots consider a political reunification?
"There is a reason why these parties continue to carry the Congress imprint in their names and political identities. They emerged from the Congress womb... Instead of yet another fragile anti-BJP alliance, why not explore a political reunification of these Congress offshoots?" asked Sardesai, the Consulting Editor of India Today TV.
His Opinion piece came even as the buzz around a TMC and Congress merger intensified.
"A merger, or at least a structured political coming together based on mutual accommodation... Why not explore a political reunification of these Congress offshoots?" he asked.
WHAT WILL MAMATA GAIN OUT OF TMC-CONGRESS MERGER?
For Mamata Banerjee, a merger of the TMC with the Congress could offer political survival at a time when her party is battling an unprecedented rebellion.
The potential merger would also give Mamata and Abhishek a role in national politics, even if the TMC's dominance in West Bengal continues to erode, according to New Delhi-based journalist Sanjay Singh.
Singh on Wednesday claimed that "the deal was final and a merger could be announced at any moment".
He said, "Sonia Gandhi offered Mamata Banerjee two proposals during the meeting."
The first proposal, he said, "Mamata Banerjee would be made the National Vice-President of the Congress". He added that the second proposal was to make "Abhishek Banerjee the National General Secretary of the Congress"
"Mamata Banerjee reportedly asked for some time. Discussions continued through the night. The next morning, Abhishek Banerjee met Rahul Gandhi. The meeting lasted around one-and-a-half hours... Abhishek later told close associates that the meeting had gone 'well', suggesting that most issues had been settled."
Singh also claimed that Abhishek Banerjee put forward his own proposals, including sending Mamata Banerjee to the Rajya Sabha and elevating her as the Leader of the Opposition in the Upper House, a position currently held by Mallikarjun Kharge.
MAMATA BANERJEE'S UNUSUAL DELHI ACTIVITIES
Several journalists junked the conversations around the merger of the TMC and the Congress.
Reporting on the Mamata and Sonia meeting on Tuesday, The Hindu newspaper, citing an unnamed source, said they "discussed strategies for the future, with the possibility of an alliance for the 2029 General Election also on the cards".
However, Mamata Banerje's recent meetings in Delhi might shed some light on something unusual that's cooking.
Mamata has been a selective participant in INDIA bloc meetings. In the past, she often deputed leaders like Abhishek and Derek O'Brien to represent the TMC.
She attended the key Bengaluru meeting in July 2023, where the opposition alliance was formally named INDIA, the Mumbai conclave in September 2023. Years later, on June 8, Mamata attended the high-profile Delhi meeting after her party's Bengal poll rout and amid reports of a massive chunk of TMC MLAs and MPs seeking to float a separate party.
She has, however, skipped or sent representatives to several other coordination and parliamentary strategy meetings of the INDIA bloc. Mamata Banerjee did not attend the first INDIA bloc meeting in Patna in June 2023. She also skipped several subsequent coordination and parliamentary strategy meetings in New Delhi.
"Hectic parleys are underway and we haven't seen Mamata Banerjee rushing to Sonia Gandhi's residence for a meeting in recent years. The fact that it has happened now, in the backdrop of the poll debacle, tells you the seriousness of the situation at hand," India Today journalist Indrajit Kundu said.
On June 8, Mamata met Sonia Gandhi, who herself has been away from the most active political events.
But Sonia must be someone who Mamata takes to comfortably and naturally. She would remember a young Mamata as a trustworthy commander of her late husband, Rajiv Gandhi.
Mamata had an over two-decade-long association with the Congress, which she severed in 1997 due to her differences with the party's Bengal unit. She also believed that the Congress high command wasn't giving enough importance to Bengal, and it wouldn't be effective in challenging the CPI(M)-led Left Front government in the state.
She floated the Trinamool Congress in 1998 and defeated the Left Front in the 2011 Assembly election.
Has the journey come full circle? Will Mamata Banerjee, whose TMC left the Congress emasculated in West Bengal, end up docking her party with the mothership?
Given the fighter Mamata is, this seems unlikely. However, she is facing a Catch 22 situation, and doesn't have too many options right now. There's intense buzz of talks going on about a TMC-Congress merger. Will that take place? We might know for sure in the coming days.
Will it be Mamata Banerjee's ghar wapsi? That's the question that is being asked. Mamata created the Trinamool Congress (TMC) after quitting the Congress in 1997. What wouldn't have even been considered a hypothesis a week ago, is now an intense buzz. But we still prefer to go with a question mark, until anything is confirmed. Will Mamata Banerjee merge her TMC with the Congress?
Nothing is unusual in politics. An unusual chain of events has led to the increasing chatter in the media corridors of New Delhi. Consider this. Mamata Banerjee was in New Delhi while she's facing a full-blown rebellion by her MLAs in West Bengal. Her councillors and local leaders are being attacked too. Crisis is in Bengal, but she's in Delhi. Why?
Mamata, along with her nephew and TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee, attended the INDIA bloc meeting of opposition parties. When was the last time that Mamata attended an INDIA bloc meeting? The TMC, the third-biggest Opposition party with 29 Lok Sabha seats and 12 Rajya Sabha seats, forged its own line of attack against the BJP-led NDA at the Centre. Mamata didn't get along with the Congress-led alliance, so why this bonhomie now?
Mamata Banerjee had a one-on-one meeting with Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday, the first in years. The meeting was reportedly on "the future of the TMC and alliance politics". On Wednesday, Abhishek Banerjee met Rahul Gandhi, the de facto chief of the Congress. Mamata was reported to meet Sonia again on Wednesday. What's about these back-to-back meetings?
Mamata Banerjee was the chief minister of West Bengal for 15 consecutive years, and her TMC enjoyed unchallenged rule in West Bengal all that while. The TMC leaders ruled through corruption, coercion, persecution and repression, and the party seemed steel-clad. No amount of storms, it seemed, could do it any damage.
Mamata emerged as the undisputed leader of Bengal. So much was her strength within Bengal, that she wanted to play a leading national role through the power of her MPs. But everything changed on May 4.
The leader who once seemed unshakeable and the party that was thought to be invincible in Bengal were swept away in a BJP wave. It was as much a vote against Mamata and her TMC as for the BJP. Her over a decade of misrule became her nemesis. The TMC was reduced to just 80 in Bengal's 294-member Assembly.
India Today TV's Senior Editor at the Kolkata Bureau, Indrajit Kundu, on Tuesday said in a broadcast that the option of the TMC merging with the Congress, he was told, "has been suggested to Mamata Banerjee... amid a very serious situation at hand".
The rebellion against the leadership, especially Abhishek, was as instantaneous as the public anger that her local leaders faced. Over 100 TMC councillors resigned, Ritabrata Banerjee led over 60 MLAs to become the LoP in the Assembly against Mamata's wishes, and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar claimed the support of over 20 of the party's 28 MPs and pledged support to the BJP-led NDA.
Within a month of the election results, Mamata, from being the unquestioned matriarch of the TMC, lost control of the party that she founded in 1998. She started a legal battle in the Calcutta High Court. But going by the precedents of the Shiv Sena and the NCP, she must have known that she didn't have much of a chance.
The numbers, both in the legislative party and the parliamentary party, the rebels commanded would have nullified the anti-defection law.
WHO IS MERGING WITH CONGRESS, ASKS TMC REBEL RITABRATA
However, Bengal LoP Ritabrata Banerjee, who rebelled from the party, threw a spanner amid the merger buzz. He claimed that 64 rebel MLAs and around 20 MPs would not support any move to merge the TMC with the Congress.
"The total number of TMC MLAs in the rebel camp has increased to 64," said Ritabrata Banerjee. On being asked about the chances of Mamata Banerjee merging the TMC with the Congress, Ritabrata said, "Our MLAs won't. There are 20 MPs who won't merge with the Congress, so who is merging? There is no question of such a merger with the Congress?"
So, what is her best option here to prevent the rebels from snatching from her the party she founded three decades ago after quitting Congress? It's a merger with the Congress, suggest many. That way, she might be able to fulfil her aspiration of getting to play a role in national politics, and secure some role for her nephew, Abhishek, who would have otherwise been a castaway.
Will Mamata, the forever streetfighter, actually end up merging her TMC with the Congress? Seems very unlikely given her fighting spirit. But this could be the only way out for her, given how embattled she is right now. Will she merge the TMC with the Congress? Nothing can be said till that is actually announced.
However, we aren't writing this in the realm of speculation. There has been intense discussion on the subject.
SANJAY RAUT PITCHED FOR MERGER OF BREAKAWAY PARTIES WITH CONGRESS
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut on June 5 pitched for all breakaway parties of the Congress to merge back with the party, arguing that it was the need of the hour if the Opposition wanted to resist the Bharatiya Janata Party's dominance.
Speaking to India Today TV's Sahil Joshi, Rajya Sabha MP Raut said this was a solution to strengthen unity among Opposition parties. "TMC, NCP and other breakaway factions of the Congress should merge into their parent party," he said.
Raut argued that a stronger Congress would be better placed to steer the Opposition, adding that the BJP wanted to eliminate smaller regional parties from India's political landscape.
IS CONGRESS ON A 'SAVE TRINAMOOL CONGRESS' MISSION?
The likelihood of a TMC-Congress merger was the hot topic of discussion on Wednesday.
"Has the Congress launched a save Trinamool Congress operation from sinking? Otherwise, inactive Sonia Gandhi meeting both Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee separately within the span of a few hours tells a story in the making. Merger of both parties or persuading Abhishek's to step aside to save the party," asked senior journalist Prabhu Chawla in a post on X on Wednesday.
Journalist-author Saba Naqvi too weighed in on the issue. "On the Congress-TMC merger. Would elevate TMC from mess and destruction in the state to a national role in sync with Congress' positions on democracy deficits. It would be good for Congress that would get access to TMC's large vote..." she said.
In his June 10 Opinion piece on India Today Digital, senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai asked if the opposition should focus on rebuilding the INDIA bloc, or should Congress and its many offshoots consider a political reunification?
"There is a reason why these parties continue to carry the Congress imprint in their names and political identities. They emerged from the Congress womb... Instead of yet another fragile anti-BJP alliance, why not explore a political reunification of these Congress offshoots?" asked Sardesai, the Consulting Editor of India Today TV.
His Opinion piece came even as the buzz around a TMC and Congress merger intensified.
"A merger, or at least a structured political coming together based on mutual accommodation... Why not explore a political reunification of these Congress offshoots?" he asked.
WHAT WILL MAMATA GAIN OUT OF TMC-CONGRESS MERGER?
For Mamata Banerjee, a merger of the TMC with the Congress could offer political survival at a time when her party is battling an unprecedented rebellion.
The potential merger would also give Mamata and Abhishek a role in national politics, even if the TMC's dominance in West Bengal continues to erode, according to New Delhi-based journalist Sanjay Singh.
Singh on Wednesday claimed that "the deal was final and a merger could be announced at any moment".
He said, "Sonia Gandhi offered Mamata Banerjee two proposals during the meeting."
The first proposal, he said, "Mamata Banerjee would be made the National Vice-President of the Congress". He added that the second proposal was to make "Abhishek Banerjee the National General Secretary of the Congress"
"Mamata Banerjee reportedly asked for some time. Discussions continued through the night. The next morning, Abhishek Banerjee met Rahul Gandhi. The meeting lasted around one-and-a-half hours... Abhishek later told close associates that the meeting had gone 'well', suggesting that most issues had been settled."
Singh also claimed that Abhishek Banerjee put forward his own proposals, including sending Mamata Banerjee to the Rajya Sabha and elevating her as the Leader of the Opposition in the Upper House, a position currently held by Mallikarjun Kharge.
MAMATA BANERJEE'S UNUSUAL DELHI ACTIVITIES
Several journalists junked the conversations around the merger of the TMC and the Congress.
Reporting on the Mamata and Sonia meeting on Tuesday, The Hindu newspaper, citing an unnamed source, said they "discussed strategies for the future, with the possibility of an alliance for the 2029 General Election also on the cards".
However, Mamata Banerje's recent meetings in Delhi might shed some light on something unusual that's cooking.
Mamata has been a selective participant in INDIA bloc meetings. In the past, she often deputed leaders like Abhishek and Derek O'Brien to represent the TMC.
She attended the key Bengaluru meeting in July 2023, where the opposition alliance was formally named INDIA, the Mumbai conclave in September 2023. Years later, on June 8, Mamata attended the high-profile Delhi meeting after her party's Bengal poll rout and amid reports of a massive chunk of TMC MLAs and MPs seeking to float a separate party.
She has, however, skipped or sent representatives to several other coordination and parliamentary strategy meetings of the INDIA bloc. Mamata Banerjee did not attend the first INDIA bloc meeting in Patna in June 2023. She also skipped several subsequent coordination and parliamentary strategy meetings in New Delhi.
"Hectic parleys are underway and we haven't seen Mamata Banerjee rushing to Sonia Gandhi's residence for a meeting in recent years. The fact that it has happened now, in the backdrop of the poll debacle, tells you the seriousness of the situation at hand," India Today journalist Indrajit Kundu said.
On June 8, Mamata met Sonia Gandhi, who herself has been away from the most active political events.
But Sonia must be someone who Mamata takes to comfortably and naturally. She would remember a young Mamata as a trustworthy commander of her late husband, Rajiv Gandhi.
Mamata had an over two-decade-long association with the Congress, which she severed in 1997 due to her differences with the party's Bengal unit. She also believed that the Congress high command wasn't giving enough importance to Bengal, and it wouldn't be effective in challenging the CPI(M)-led Left Front government in the state.
She floated the Trinamool Congress in 1998 and defeated the Left Front in the 2011 Assembly election.
Has the journey come full circle? Will Mamata Banerjee, whose TMC left the Congress emasculated in West Bengal, end up docking her party with the mothership?
Given the fighter Mamata is, this seems unlikely. However, she is facing a Catch 22 situation, and doesn't have too many options right now. There's intense buzz of talks going on about a TMC-Congress merger. Will that take place? We might know for sure in the coming days.
