‘Come back to Congress’: Adhir Chowdhury makes big Mamata pitch

Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Thursday made a direct pitch to TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee to rejoin the Congress along with her remaining MLAs and MPs, saying there would be no objection to her leading the party's Bengal unit.

Chowdhury also appealed to the Congress high command to facilitate such a development and said Banerjee should, as a gesture of cooperation similar to the October 6 Nandigram assembly bypoll, extend support to the Congress candidate in Rejinagar.

His appeal came at a time when the TMC is battling what may be its deepest organisational crisis since its formation, with its legislative and parliamentary wings witnessing separate rebellions following its defeat in the 2026 Assembly elections.

"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, a former state Congress president, said, referring to the split in the party.

Banerjee had left the Congress and formed the Trinamool Congress nearly three decades ago.

"We would urge Mamata Banerjee to join the Congress along with all the leftover MLAs and MPs. I will also make this appeal to Congress high command that let her rejoin the party. We would accept her leadership in Bengal and work with her," he said.

Seeking to build on the TMC faction's recent support for the Congress in Nandigram, Chowdhury said Banerjee should make a similar move in Rejinagar.

"As a friendly gesture, just as she has supported the Congress candidate in Nandigram, she should also extend support to the Congress candidate in Rejinagar," he said.

In Nandigram, the Mamata faction's candidate withdrew from the contest after meeting West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari. With the faction left without a candidate, Banerjee announced support for Congress nominee Milan Pradhan.

The development came hours after the Election Commission allotted new names and symbols to the rival TMC factions amid their dispute over the original party identity.

The TMC won 80 seats in the 294-member Assembly in the 2026 elections, in which the BJP emerged as the largest party. Within weeks of the poll verdict, however, the TMC legislature party itself split, with 58 rebel MLAs backing expelled leader Ritabrata Banerjee as their Leader of the Opposition and the Assembly Speaker recognising the rival bloc.

The rebellion was followed by a parallel churn in the TMC's parliamentary wing, with rebel MPs also challenging Mamata Banerjee's leadership.

While the Assembly rebels have sought to establish a separate legislative identity, the rebel parliamentary group has moved closer to the little-known NCPI and extended support to the BJP-led NDA at the Centre.

The simultaneous rupture in the Assembly and Parliament has transformed what began as post-election dissent into a wider contest over the TMC's political identity, leadership and future.

Chowdhury sought to link Banerjee's recent engagement with the Congress-led INDIA bloc with his call for her return to the party.

"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.

He also asked Banerjee to join the Congress "leaving behind her baggage", an apparent reference to her nephew and TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.

TMC MP Sougata Roy, however, said the party would consider such a proposal only if it came formally from the Congress leadership.

"He (Chowdhury) has said what he felt. We have nothing to say. TMC is a separate party now. If 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 said.

Asked about Chowdhury's "baggage" remark, Roy said there could be no decision about the party without Abhishek Banerjee.

"He is our leader and national general secretary," the MP said.

Roy's response drew a distinction between Chowdhury's personal proposal and any possible formal initiative by the Congress leadership, while reiterating that the TMC remains a separate constituent of the INDIA bloc.

The BJP, meanwhile, sought to use the Congress-TMC exchange to argue that the Trinamool Congress had exhausted its political purpose.

BJP West Bengal spokesperson Debjit Sarkar said, "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."

"Whether they will join the Congress or not is up to them. We are ready to fight the Congress, TMC and CPI(M)," he said.

The political irony of Chowdhury's proposal lies in the history of the TMC itself.

Banerjee broke away from the Congress in 1998 to establish the TMC, which subsequently built its political identity by challenging the Congress as well as the Left Front. In 2011, the party ended the Left Front's 34-year rule and remained in power for 15 years.

After the 2026 Assembly polls, the BJP occupies the government benches, the TMC faces an internal split, and the Congress seeks to regain political space in Bengal.

A possible merger would therefore represent more than an electoral understanding between two opposition parties. It would reopen the question of whether the TMC can retain its separate organisational identity after losing power and suffering simultaneous ruptures in its Assembly and parliamentary wings.

For Banerjee, Chowdhury's proposition also comes at a politically unusual moment: the leader who built the TMC after breaking away from the Congress is now being invited to return to the party, with the Congress offering to work under her leadership in Bengal.

Twenty-eight years after Banerjee walked out of the Congress to create the TMC, Chowdhury is effectively proposing the reverse journey -- with the Congress and TMC's remaining organisational structures potentially coming under one political umbrella.