Will Mamata’s TMC follow history? A look at 6 parties that merged with Congress

As speculation continues over whether and when Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee would merge her party with the Congress, a party where she had started her political career four decades ago, it would be interesting to take a look at how splinter groups or smaller parties merged themselves with the Grand-Old Party, facing the day's political reality, in India’s political history, even going back to the pre-Independence years.

Swaraj Party (1923-35)

In 1923, more than two decades before India attained Independence, stalwarts Chittaranjan Das and Motilal Nehru, along with others, formed the Swaraj Party over differences with Mahatma Gandhi’s strategies of freedom struggle. However, the party failed to live up to expectations and merged with the Congress in 1935.

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Bangla Congress (1966-71)

In 1966, former West Bengal chief minister Ajoy Mukherjee formed the Bangla Congress, a splinter group from the Congress, after he and some other leaders disagreed with the parent party’s leadership and sought a Bengali regional assertion. Bangla Congress was also part of two short-lived coalition governments in Bengal between 1967 and 1971. Electoral setbacks, leadership disputes, and the resurgence of the Congress under Indira Gandhi led to its decline, and it merged back with the original party.

Vishal Haryana Party (1967-78)

In Haryana, Rao Birender Singh, a former chief minister of Haryana who is also known for coining the political vocabulary “Aaya Ram, Gaya Ram” (turncoats), formed his splinter group out of the Congress called the Vishal Haryana Party in 1967. Aa a popular Ahir leader, Singh tried to safeguard the peasants’ interests, but his party’s reach remained limited. After its brief stay in power, the Vishal Haryana Party emerged as the state’s main opposition party in 1968. It also put up a decent show in the 1977 Assembly elections, but Singh realised that the future looked bleak and merged his party with the Congress the next year.

Telangana Praja Samithi (1969-71)

Telangana Praja Samithi was a regional party which was founded in March 1969 by leaders such as Ananthula Madan Mohan and Marri Channa Reddy, a former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. The party which sought the creation of a separate Telangana state from Andhra became a key force in the agitation for statehood, which also turned violent in the late 1960s. It also made a mark in the 1971 Lok Sabha elections, sweeping the Telangana region of undivided Andhra, outsmarting the Congress. However, the party was dissolved soon after in the same year to serve political strategies and was merged with the Congress.

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Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress (1986-89)

In 1986, two years after the assassination of former PM Indira Gandhi, Pranab Mukherjee, one of her trusted aides who went on to become the president later, formed the Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress due to the post-Indira struggle in the party. Pranab felt he was the rightful successor to the slain leader, while her son Rajiv Gandhi succeeded her. He formed his own party in Bengal, but it failed to attract major political traction, and after a poor show in the 1987 Bengal polls, he went back to the Congress.

Praja Rajyam Party (2008-11)

Telugu actor Chiranjeevi had in 2008 launched his party named Praja Rajyam Party as “an alternative to the Congress and Telugu Desam Party” in Andhra Pradesh, and also “to protect the poor and social justice and fight corruption”. In 2011, he merged the party with the Congress after talks with Sonia Gandhi. It gave the Congress a strong platform to fight the rebellion influenced by YSR Jaganmohan Reddy, the son of former Congress chief minister YSR Reddy, and now leads the YSR Congress. Also, considerations to save the Congress government in undivided Andhra from losing majority and caste factors related to the Kapu community were held among reasons for the merger.

Also read: TMC's many battles: Rebel MPs form NDA bloc in Parliament as Assembly fight reaches HC

Besides the abovementioned parties, there were many others that followed the same path. Among them were Indian National Congress-Socialist (1978-86), Haryana Vikas Party (1996-2004), Tamizhaga Rajiv Congress (1996-2002), and Arunachal Congress (1996-2009), among others.

The TMC was also a splinter group which was formed by Mamata on January 1, 1998, after she was expelled by the Congress over internal differences. the two parties, despite having a common enemy in the Bharatiya Janata Party, did not get along well always, particularly at the state level. Almost three decades since then, political realities have ironically brought the firebrand leader close to the party she once belonged to.