Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has invited Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee to return to the Congress with her remaining MLAs and MPs. He said he is ready to accept her leadership in West Bengal and work under her.
He made the appeal as the TMC faces internal rebellions after its defeat in the 2026 West Bengal Assembly election. The party won 80 of the 294 seats, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the largest party. Separate groups of TMC legislators and MPs have since challenged the party’s leadership.
“There is no need for any separate entity at this moment. Not much is left of the TMC after its defeat in the assembly elections,” Chowdhury said.
‘We will accept her leadership’
He asked the former West Bengal chief minister to bring the TMC lawmakers still with her back into the Congress.
“We would urge Mamata Banerjee to join the Congress along with all the leftover MLAs and MPs. We would accept her leadership in Bengal and work with her,” he said.
He also appealed to the Congress high command to facilitate such a move. “As she has taken shelter in the Congress-led ‘INDIA’ alliance, she should join the party. In Bengal, we would work under you in Congress,” he said.
The offer has a backstory. Banerjee was a Congress leader before she left the party and formed the TMC in 1998. The party later built its political base in Bengal by taking on the Congress and the Left Front.
Chowdhury also told Banerjee to join the Congress “leaving behind her baggage”. The comment was understood as a reference to her nephew and TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
He also urged her to support the Congress candidate in the Rejinagar Assembly bypoll as a gesture of cooperation.
TMC asks for a formal proposal
TMC MP Sougata Roy said Chowdhury had expressed his personal view and that the party would consider the proposal if it came formally from the Congress leadership.
“He (Chowdhury) has said what he felt. We have nothing to say. The TMC 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,” he said.
When asked about Congress leader’s reference to Banerjee’s “baggage”, Roy defended Abhishek Banerjee’s position in the party.
“He (Abhishek Banerjee) is our leader and national general secretary,” he said.
The TMC’s parliamentary rebellion has also reached the Lok Sabha where the speaker has issued notices to 20 rebel MPs and asked them to respond by October 8 following a Supreme Court observation on the need for timely disposal of disqualification petitions filed against them. The petitions were filed by Abhishek under the anti-defection rules.
Rebel MLAs, MPs take separate routes
The crisis has taken different forms in the assembly and Parliament. Rebel TMC MLAs have sought recognition as the legislative opposition to the BJP government in Bengal. The rebel MPs have taken a separate political route and joined the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), while extending support to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the Centre.
An analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms also counted 20 TMC lawmakers among those who moved to NCPI between 2022 and 2026.
The BJP has also used the Congress-TMC exchange to attack both parties. West Bengal BJP spokesperson Debjit Sarkar said the TMC had lost the political purpose for which it was formed.
“The TMC was born out of the Congress to fight the CPI-M. The TMC came to power on that plank. Now that the TMC itself is out of power, they have no other purpose left,” he said.
“Whether they will join the Congress or not is up to them. We are ready to fight the Congress, the TMC and the CPI-M,” he added.
