Three back-to-back meetings between the first families of the Trinamool Congress and the Congress over the past three days have set tongues wagging about the possibility of Mamata Banerjee returning to the Grand Old Party at a time her political legacy is threatened by stunning desertions after the electoral drubbing in Bengal.
A Trinamool senior, however, dismissed the “rumours” about a potential homecoming as “baseless”, maintaining that the closed-door discussions between Mamata and Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday and between Abhishek Banerjee and Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday revolved around putting up a joint fight against the BJP and carving out space in the Opposition camp for a larger role for the former Bengal chief minister.
Congress leaders also rubbished talk of a reunification, with Jairam Ramesh terming the reports “completely inaccurate”. He said Sonia and Mamata discussed “many personal matters”.
Mamata broke away from the Congress and formed Trinamool in 1998. “There is no way Mamata will ever give up her party. To save her party, she can even strike a deal with the other side (BJP),” a senior Bengal Congress leader told The Telegraph.
Mamata joined the Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet in 1999 after calling the BJP her “natural ally” in a BBC interview.
The murmurs of a merger gained crescendo on Wednesday afternoon as Trinamool national general secretary and Mamata’s nephew Abhishek, whom the rebel MLAs and MPs have largely blamed for their move to break away from the party and who is facing CID summons in Calcutta, drove down to Sonia’s 10 Janpath residence for a meeting with leader of the Opposition Rahul at his mother’s home.
This was the third rendezvous this week between the Banerjees and the Gandhis — the first was on Monday at the INDIA conclave in New Delhi, followed by a closed-door meeting at 10 Janpath between Mamata and Sonia on Tuesday.
Abhishek’s meeting with Rahul was to be a 45-minute appointment, but their discussions stretched for well over an hour — 88 minutes according to insiders.
Posting a picture of Abhishek and Rahul, Trinamool said on X: “The meeting reflected a shared commitment to safeguarding democracy, upholding constitutional values and working for the welfare of every Indian.”
Although Mamata broke away from the Congress and later walked out of the UPA in 2012, she has maintained a close equation with Sonia. She used to visit 10 Janpath occasionally during her Delhi trips as chief minister.
Asked if the two parties were planning to join forces in Bengal, the Trinamool leader who dubbed the speculation baseless said: “When such senior leaders of the two parties meet, you can draw your own inferences.... The CPM tried to postpone the INDIA meeting. The Congress can’t align with the CPM in Kerala. In Bengal, the Congress has a choice between them and us.”
While most of the constituents of the INDIA bloc have been in alliance with the Congress in some state or the other, Trinamool has been the only outfit that did not have any kind of electoral understanding with the national party since the grouping was formed.
Trinamool had, in fact, hoped to edge out the Congress from its leadership position in the Opposition camp if it scored a fourth successive win in Bengal, averring that Mamata was most suited to lead the INDIA bloc given her track record of taking on the BJP in straight fights.
Although Rahul had accused Mamata of “paving the way for the BJP” in an election rally in Bengal, he later publicly called upon Congress members not to gloat over Trinamool’s loss, describing the outcome as a “theft” of the mandate. He was also quick to reach out to Abhishek when he was assaulted in Sonarpur on May 30.