New Delhi:
Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee met Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi for one and a half hours on Wednesday amid efforts to strengthen coordination within the opposition INDIA bloc.
According to sources, the Trinamool conveyed during the meeting that it wants a strong alliance and accepts Rahul Gandhi’s leadership in the opposition grouping. Congress has made clear that any proposal for a merger must come from the Trinamool and that it is not pushing for such a move. The meeting took place at 10 Janpath in the national capital.
It followed a meeting on Tuesday between Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi at the same location. Photographs of the embrace between Mamata Banerjee and Sonia Gandhi at the INDIA meeting were widely circulated, with the Trinamool describing it on X as a sign of a long-standing bond. That discussion came a day after the two leaders embraced at the INDIA bloc meeting held in Delhi earlier this week.
According to sources, Wednesday’s engagement between Rahul Gandhi and Abhishek Banerjee was part of ongoing contacts between the two parties following the bloc’s recent gathering. At that meeting, opposition leaders stressed the need for greater coordination and unity to challenge the BJP.
The two parties have a shared history. Mamata Banerjee founded the Trinamool Congress in 1998 after leaving the Congress. The parties worked together to defeat the Left Front government in West Bengal in 2011 before their alliance broke down the following year. They later became partners in the INDIA bloc ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Speculation about possible closer ties between the parties arose after Mamata Banerjee’s meeting with Sonia Gandhi, though Rahul Gandhi was not present.
The developments took place as the Trinamool Congress faces internal rebellion after its defeat in the recent West Bengal Assembly elections. A section of MLAs and then several MPs have broken ranks and have indicated to ally with the BJP and the NDA.
Taking a dig at both Rahul Gandhi and Abhishek Banerjee, the BJP’s Priyanka Tibrewal described the meeting as “one yuvraj (prince) meeting another”.
“Where is their self-esteem? Just for power, they can do anything, hug anyone, be friends or de-friend anybody. I simply don’t understand that. If it is raining, you look for an umbrella which can give you shelter. But Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, and the Congress, do not even have a roof over their heads. What kind of shelter are they going to provide?” Tibrewal told NDTV.
In another setback to the Trinamool, its MP Sushmita Dev on Wednesday resigned from the party and the Rajya Sabha. Dev, who joined Mamata Banerjee’s party in 2021 after quitting the Congress, is likely to join the BJP as she met Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, shortly after her resignation.
