Abhijit Mukherjee, the son of former President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday (July 5) joined the Trinamool Congress in Kolkata. Abhijit, a former MP from Jangipur, West Bengal, the parliamentary constituency also represented by his father, was of late giving indication of joining the TMC. He was welcomed into the party by TMC leader in Lok Sabha, Sudip Bandopadhyay. A few days back he had even met the TMC general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee.
It needs to be mentioned that his father always had a soft corner for Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee and was reportedly upset when the alliance between TMC and Congress collapsed before the 2016 Assembly election.
However, Abhijit’s sister Sharmistha Mukherjee just tweeted “SAD”. His move came at a time when Congress president Sonia Gandhi is trying to bring her party closer to the TMC. There are reports that the party is most likely to replace Adheer Ranjan Chaudhary from the post of the leader of the party in Lok Sabha. He is likely to be replaced either by Shashi Tharoor or Manish Tiwari, MPs from Kerala and Punjab respectively.
The change is likely to take place before the Monsoon Session of Parliament which is going to start from July 19. However, Adheer may continue to be the president of West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee. While Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tiwari are from the Group of 23, Adheer was considered as a loyalist. But his bargaining position grew weak after the Congress-Left alliance drew blank in West Bengal. The party central leadership didn’t like his very strong anti-Mamata line.
