New Delhi: Abhijit Mukherjee, the son of former President late Pranab Mukherjee, is set to return to the Congress after a brief stint with the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
West Bengal Congress functionaries confirmed to ThePrint that Abhijit will be formally rejoining the party in Kolkata Wednesday in the presence of AICC in-charge Ghulam Ahmad Mir and other state leaders.
State Congress chief Subhankar Sarkar said: “This will give a boost to the state unit. We want people who align themselves with the ideology of Rahul Gandhi to join our party.”
Many in the state unit claimed Abhijit felt he was “missing out” while he was in the TMC, and that this was one of the key reasons behind his comeback. ThePrint reached the former Jangipur MP, but he refused to comment.
After Pranab Mukherjee’s death in 2020, both his son and daughter left the Congress within a year. Abhijit left the party in July 2021 to join TMC, whereas Sharmistha quit active politics in September 2021. Though she never joined any party, she has, on various occasions, publicly criticised the Congress.
Last year, Abhijit had attributed his 2019 loss in the Lok Sabha elections—he lost the Jangipur seat to TMC candidate Khalilur Rahaman—to undisclosed reasons the Congress high command was aware of. He told ANI: “For 2.5 years I carried out whatever assignment was given to me by the Congress. But they didn’t give me enough assignments, whatever may be the reason. I was gradually marginalised by a particular person, a particular group…In the meantime, Mamata Didi called me back as I had sought time from her…I met them and they offered me to join them.”
His sister Sharmistha has been quite vocal against the Congress after leaving the party. Last year in December, a few days after Manmohan Singh passed away, she had slammed the Congress for not holding a Congress Working Committee (CWC) condolence meeting after her father’s demise.
Abhijit Mukherjee, who has a corporate background, entered politics in 2011 when he won the assembly polls in Nalhati constituency of Birbhum district. In 2012, he won the Jangipur Lok Sabha constituency by-election, defeating CPM’s Muzaffar Hussain. The seat was vacated by Pranab Mukherjee after he became President.
Abhijit was re-elected to Lok Sabha from Jangipur in 2014 polls, but lost the seat in 2019.
Functionaries in AICC are seeing Mukherjee’s joining as a “ghar wapsi”. One senior leader told ThePrint, “See, those who joined regional parties after leaving Congress now after Kejriwal’s loss must be realising that Congress is the only party that can challenge BJP. We are happy with his joining as the party is now focusing on making its Bengal unit stronger. His legacy and experience will give us a boost.”
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
Also Read: ‘Your followers unleash nafrat on your critics’ — Pranab Mukherjee’s daughter to Rahul Gandhi