Abhijit Mukherjee, a two-time MP and Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader, has expressed his desire to return to Congress three years after he quit the Grand Old Party to join the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC. He is the son of former President of India Pranab Mukherjee.
Abhijit Mukherjee quit the Congress to join TMC in 2021. He has been an MP from the Jangipur Lok Sabha seat. The politician further stated that he contested the Jangipur Lok Sabha seat on a Congress ticket and lost in 2019.
Mukherjee said he felt marginalised in the Mallikarjun Kharge-led party and joined TMC in 2021. However, the politician maintained that he was never assigned a ticket after he joined TMC. “After joining the TMC, I got no such assignments. Their work culture didn’t match with that of the Congress at all.”
Abhijit Mukherjee claimed that Congress leaders had asked him why ‘he was lying low’.
“I thought enough is enough. So, after coming back to Delhi senior leaders (from Congress) asked me indirectly why am I lying low. They told me to be active. I sought time from senior high command, maybe I would be able to meet them in a day or two. If they ask me to join immediately, I would do it. I am absolutely free and ready to contribute. If Congress accepts me, definitely. I am being marginalised currently but I don’t want to stir any controversy” he said.
“I lost the elections in 2019 due to reasons that I know but won’t be able to say out loud. High Command knows it too. For 2.5 years I carried out whatever assignment was given to me by the Congress.” Mukherjee added.
“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. I had urged CM Mamata Banerjee to name a street in the name of my father and there are a lot of parks in Kolkata. I had urged the CM to name a park in my father’s name but no such action was taken,” Mukherjee said.
He further said that in 2021 the number of seats of CPI (M) had reduced to zero in the Vidhan Sabha.
“In Bengal, I did not want to join the CPI (M). I had decided that if TMC does not give me any place then I will fight alone. By contesting alone I may get less seats but I will get more vote percent,” Mukherjee said.
Notably, Pranab Mukherjee had remained a Congress loyalist and leader for decades in his political career. However, relations between a Mukherjee offspring and the Congress turned sour when a posthumous memoir of the later President stirred controversy for remarking on the discipline of Rahul Gandhi as a politician.
The former President had in his book said that he was aghast at Rahul Gandhi’s ordinance-tearing act in 2013 and said he has all the “arrogance” of his Gandhi-Nehru lineage without their political acumen and that this episode was the “final nail in the coffin” for the Congress in the Lok Sabha polls.
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Published: 19 Jun 2024, 02:13 PM IST
