Pradesh Congress Committee president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Tuesday invited those who had defected from the party to others in Malda to “return home”, a move being seen as a part of the plan to revive the organisation at one of its traditional bases in Bengal.

“In Malda and in some other places, many leaders have left Congress and most have joined Trinamul. It is high time you desert Trinamul, which is a sinking ship, and return home. All of you will get due respect and positions in the party,” he said at a meeting.

In north Bengal, Malda is considered one of the last districts where Congress still has some support base.

Over the last few years, prominent Congress leaders, including Mausam Benazir Noor, had defected to Trinamul. Sources said the party lost two MLAs to Trinamul, which was looked after by Trinamul’s now-rebel Suvendu Adhikari. Adhikari’s distance from Trinamul, sources said, offered an opportunity to the Congress to claw back into relevance in the district with over 56 per cent minority population.

“That’s why Adhirda gave a call to party leaders who had deserted the party, to return to Congress,” said a source.

It is this district of north Bengal, from where Congress could win a Lok Sabha seat (Malda south) in 2019. Also, out of 54 Assembly segments of the region, the party managed to secure a lead in four segments.

At the Malda meeting, Chowdhury was also elated to see over 15,000 people.

“Even some of our district leaders here were concerned about the attendance of people as the BJP announced a strike in north Bengal. But I was confident and told them to go ahead with the programme. Congress supporters have proved again that Malda continues to be our place,” said Chowdhury.

A Congress insider said that in Malda, many former party leaders who, after joining Trinamul, had developed close relations with Suvendu Adhikari over the years.

“Among them, there are some who may prefer to return to Congress instead of following him in case he walks out of Trinamul. This missive is also for them and might give them a new option," he said.

On Monday, Chowdhury was in Raiganj in North Dinajpur, another erstwhile Congress bastion, where he had walked in a rally that recorded participation of 10,000-odd supporters.