Congress rules out TMC merger buzz as ‘baseless rumour’ amid Bengal political turmoil

The clarification came amid growing political chatter following separate meetings involving TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi.

Congress rejects merger speculation

Addressing a press conference on Thursday, Congress General Secretary K.C. Venugopal dismissed reports suggesting that the two parties were exploring a merger.

"These are baseless rumours. The meeting between TMC and Congress leaders was only to discuss raising the national issues in a more effective manner," Venugopal said.

He maintained that the discussions were held within the broader framework of opposition coordination and did not involve any conversation about merging the two political organisations.

Meetings spark political buzz

Speculation intensified after Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee attended the INDIA bloc meeting in New Delhi earlier this week.

Mamata Banerjee has historically maintained a selective approach towards INDIA bloc meetings, often delegating senior party representatives to attend on behalf of the Trinamool Congress.

Sonia Gandhi (L) hugging Mamata Banerjee (R) at INDIA bloc meeting. Photo: AITC/Facebook

She was absent from the opposition alliance's first meeting in Patna in June 2023 and skipped several subsequent coordination and strategy sessions.

The rumours gained further momentum after Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee separately met Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the days following the INDIA bloc gathering.

The high-profile interactions sparked renewed discussions about a possible political rapprochement, nearly three decades after Mamata Banerjee left the Congress to establish the Trinamool Congress.

Speculation emerges amid TMC crisis

The merger buzz comes at a time when the Trinamool Congress is facing internal divisions and political uncertainty following its defeat in the recent West Bengal Assembly election.

The party secured 80 seats in the 294-member Assembly and has since witnessed differences emerging between sections of its legislative and parliamentary wings.

Despite the speculation, the Trinamool Congress has not issued any official statement indicating that merger talks are underway.

(L-R) Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee. Photo: AITC/Facebook

TMC leaders also reject merger reports

Senior TMC leader and MP Saugata Roy acknowledged the importance of cooperation between the Congress and the Trinamool Congress but stopped short of endorsing any merger proposal.

According to Roy, collaboration between the two parties could take different forms, and it remains unclear whether future cooperation would be limited to political coordination or evolve into a broader arrangement.

Meanwhile, Ritabrata Banerjee, who claims the support of 64 of the TMC's 80 MLAs in West Bengal, also rejected reports suggesting the party was preparing to merge with the Congress.

"Regarding a merger, as for our legislative party, we are certainly not joining the Congress. The MPs in Parliament — more than two-thirds of them — are not merging with the Congress either. So, who is merging with whom?" he said.

A relationship marked by political history

Mamata Banerjee spent more than 20 years in the Congress before breaking away in 1997 amid differences with the party's state leadership.

She was critical of what she viewed as the Congress leadership's lack of focus on West Bengal and its inability to effectively challenge the CPI(M)-led Left Front government.

In 1998, she launched the Trinamool Congress, which eventually emerged as the principal opposition force in the state before ending the Left Front's 34-year rule in the landmark 2011 Assembly election.