The source of the acrimony then was the incessant verbal salvos he had unleashed on Mamata Banerjee. Over two years and the Trinamool’s three-way split later, the politician has decided to bury the hatchet. In 2024, the undivided Trinamool Congress blamed Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury for derailing seat-sharing talks with the Congress for the Lok Sabha polls.
The Congress leader’s offer comes amid a rebellion-induced existential crisis that Mamata Banerjee and what remains of her party have been negotiating.
“I advise Mamata Banerjee. And I also ask our high command. Why doesn’t Mamata Banerjee join the Congress? “Do you know what Mamata Banerjee’s baggage is? We have nothing to say. TMC (Trinamool) is a separate party now. If the Congress wants to come with an official proposal, we will discuss the matter in the party. The TMC is very much part of the INDIA alliance,” Roy was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
“Not just today, but if you look at the history of the last few years — you will see that in 2001, 2009, 2010, the 2009 Lok Sabha, in 2011, the Congress supported Mamata Banerjee. They supported her in 2009 and 2011,” he said.
Why doesn’t she join the Congress with all the MPs and MLAs of her party?” he said at a press conference. Chowdhury said that since Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool was an offshoot of the Congress, she shouldn’t have a “problem” in returning to the party. “If she is a product of the Congress, then there is no problem with her joining the Congress,” he said. By removing that baggage, Mamata Banerjee should join the Congress Party directly,” he said, apparently alluding to her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee. Chowdhury said the Congress has always backed Mamata Banerjee. He said the Congress never opposed Mamata Banerjee. “On the contrary, we were opposed by Mamata Banerjee,” he alleged. “He (Chowdhury) has said what he felt.
