West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) president Subhankar Sarkar.
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Amidst speculation that the Trinamool Congress may merge with the Congress, West Bengal Congress president Subhankar Sarkar said on Wednesday (June 10, 2026) that anyone who wants to see Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi become the country’s Prime Minister could join the party.
“Politics is an art of possibility. Anyone who wants to see Rahul Gandhi as Prime Minister can join the party,” Mr. Sarkar told media when asked whether the Congress is willing to accommodate Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee.
Asked whether Ms. Banerjee’s nephew and Trinamool national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee is also welcome, Mr. Sarkar said that the same conditions would apply for him as well.
Return to Congress roots?
Over the past two days, Ms. Banerjee and Mr. Abhishek Banerjee have held several meetings with Mr. Gandhi and his mother, former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, triggering speculation that Ms. Banerjee may try to return to her roots.
Ms. Banerjee had formed the Trinamool Congress in 1998 after she was expelled from the Congress. The TMC came to power in 2011, defeating the 34-year-old Left Front government, and remained in power for 15 years till 2026. Before 2021, the TMC had captured every municipality previously held by the Congress and engineered the defection of a number of Congress MLAs to the Trinamool. Given this history, a section of Congress leaders and workers are against Ms. Banerjee rejoining the Congress.
‘Rebels are real TMC’
Barely a month after suffering a sharp defeat in the West Bengal Assembly election, the Trinamool Congress is facing a rebellion by most of its State legislators and a split among its Parliamentarians. About 20 Trinamool MPs in the Lok Sabha have announced a separate bloc which will extend support to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government.
The rebels in the Trinamool Congress legislature party in West Bengal have appointed Ritabrata Banerjee as the Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly, and he insisted that the TMC rebels would not merge with the Congress. “We are the real Trinamool Congress and not merging with Congress,” he told journalists outside the State Assembly.
‘No merger planned’
The Uluberia Purba MLA said that the number of rebel MLAs has now increased to 64 and expressed confidence that more will join them. Only 80 Trinamool Congress candidates had won seats in the 2026 Assembly election.
“The MPs in Parliament — more than two-thirds of them are not merging with the Congress either. So, who is merging with whom? As far as we are concerned and based on what I know, the MPs aren’t going, we aren’t going, the municipal representatives aren’t going, the Zilla Parishad members aren’t going,” Mr. Ritabrata Banerjee said.
On Wednesday, another Trinamool MP Sushmita Dev resigned from the Rajya Sabha, bringing the number of party’s Rajya Sabha MPs down to 11. On Monday, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray had also resigned from the party and from his Rajya Sabha seat.
Published – June 10, 2026 09:52 pm IST
