The chorus for regional parties born out of the Congress to return to the parent fold is getting louder, underscoring a widening belief within the Opposition that a fragmented anti-BJP camp may struggle to withstand the saffron party’s political dominance.
The renewed push comes against the backdrop of the implosion of the Trinamool Congress following its rout in the Bengal polls.
Adding heft to the idea on Friday, veteran Congress leader and former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot endorsed Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut’s call for a broader Opposition reunification under the Congress banner.
“I believe what Sanjay Raut has said has merit. The time has come. The fight now is to save democracy,” Gehlot told reporters.
Trinamool and Congress leaders on Wednesday had moved swiftly to dismiss as “rumours” speculation about Mamata Banerjee’s possible return to the Congress. The speculation around a potential reunification gathered momentum after three back-to-back meetings between the first families of the two parties following a wave of high-profile defections from Trinamool.
Gehlot on Friday stressed the need for regional outfits that had split from the Congress to merge with the party and rally behind Rahul Gandhi.
Congress insiders said the Trinamool leadership might find the idea of accepting Rahul as their leader difficult, but it would not be able to ignore the option.
Raut had on Wednesday urged parties such as Trinamool and the NCP (Sharad Pawar) to return to the Congress fold to better resist what he described as the BJP’s relentless expansion. Raut’s party, the erstwhile Shiv Sena, had suffered a split in Maharashtra in 2022 similar to what Trinamool is witnessing now.
Raut proposed NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar, who like Mamata had broken away from the Congress, as a possible architect of a larger Opposition reunification of parties sharing an anti-BJP political platform.
The NCP, like the Shiv Sena, suffered a split in 2023 when the dominant faction led by Sharad Pawar’s nephew, Ajit Pawar, aligned with the BJP. Both the Sena and NCP breakaways have long been portrayed by Opposition parties as BJP-engineered efforts to weaken regional rivals.
A day after Raut’s remarks, NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule described his proposal as a “personal opinion” but acknowledged it as a “good suggestion”, while refusing to predict future political realignment.
Sule drew parallels between the turmoil in Trinamool and the splits that hit the Sena and the NCP, expressing solidarity with Mamata’s party.
“First they split the Shiv Sena, then the NCP and now the Trinamool Congress. We have suffered this ourselves and stand firmly with the TMC. We will fight in court and truth will triumph,” she said.
Sule’s father Sharad Pawar had, well before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, publicly anticipated such a realignment as a likely response to the BJP’s growing dominance. “In the next couple of years, several regional parties will associate more closely with the Congress. Or they may look at the option of merging with the Congress if they believe that is the best for their party,” Pawar had told The Indian Express.
Asked whether the possibility extended to his own NCP (SP), Sharad had signalled openness to the idea, arguing that there was little ideological distance between the Congress and his party.
The debate over Opposition consolidation also surfaced at the INDIA bloc meeting on Monday, where Rahul did not explicitly advocate mergers but made a forceful case for greater unity against what he described as the BJP’s capture of state institutions.
Arguing that the BJP now exercised influence over key institutions, Rahul urged allies to recognise the changed political landscape and close ranks.