Pranab Mukherjee’s son and TMC leader Abhijit eyes Congress return, says ’enough is enough’

Abhijit Mukherjee, a two-time Member of Parliament and Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader, on Wednesday, June 19, expressed his desire to return to the Congress party three years after his exit. Mukherjee, the son of former President of India the late Pranab Mukherjee, quit the grand old party to join the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC in 2021. 

Abhijit Mukherjee has been an MP from the Jangipur Lok Sabha seat. 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 the TMC in 2021. However, he was never assigned a ticket after the switch. “After joining the TMC, I got no such assignments. Their work culture didn't match with that of the Congress at all,” he told ANI.

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 (Congress) leaders 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 the Congress accepts me, definitely. I am being marginalised currently, but I don't want to stir any controversy," he told the news channel.

“I lost the elections in 2019 due to reasons that I know but won't be able to say out loud. The 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 the TMC does not give me any place, then I will fight alone. By contesting alone, I may get fewer seats, but I will get more vote per cent," Mukherjee said.

Notably, Pranab Mukherjee had remained a Congress loyalist and leader for decades in his political career. However, relations between the Mukherjee offspring and the Congress turned sour when a posthumous memoir of the late President stirred controversy for remarking on the discipline of Rahul Gandhi as a politician.

In his book, the former President said he was aghast at Rahul Gandhi's ordinance-tearing act in 2013, that 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.