Calcutta, April 21: Ten years after Mamata Banerjee was expelled from the Congress, former state party chief Somen Mitra said it shouldn’t have happened and held the high command responsible for the “wrong” move.

“Mamata was an asset for the party and it was wrong to expel her. But I, being the then PCC president, had to make the announcement at the high command’s behest,” he told a Congress rally at Shahid Minar today.

Mitra added that the party should tie up with Mamata’s Trinamul Congress in its campaign against land acquisition for industry. “The BJP is not part of Mamata’s Krishi Jomi Raksha Committee. So what’s the harm if we collaborate with her?”

In 1993, both Mitra and Mamata had contested for the state Congress president’s post, which the former won.

According to Mitra, the Congress has lost its “credibility” as far as the land acquisition campaign in the state is concerned.

“We have really failed to step up the movement on burning issues like Singur and Nandigram. So, it is wise to tie up with Mamata’s Krishi Jomi Raksha Committee to launch a broad-based movement against the communists.”

However, Congress leaders said Mitra, pushed to the corner, is desperate to regain the reins of the party. “Today’s rally is nothing but an effort to prove Somen’s strength,” said a state Congress functionary.