Mamata’s renewed bonhomie with Gandhis sparks rumours of TMC-Congress merger

Beleaguered by the growing rebellion of her party’s MLAs and MPs, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is now in the eye of another political whirlwind. After over three years of incessantly undermining the Congress’s centrality within the Opposition INDIA bloc, Mamata’s renewed camaraderie with the party she quit in 1997 and her current battle for political relevance in Bengal has triggered rumours about the TMC’s possible merger with the Congress.

Over the past three days, Mamata has noticeably warmed up to the Congress’s first family. She received a warm embrace from former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi at the INDIA bloc meeting on June 8 and was among the few leaders from leaders to speak in defence of the Congress at the conclave when the party came in for attacks from a string of INDIA bloc leaders. A day later, Mamata followed up with a visit to Sonia’s 10, Janpath residence, where the two reportedly spoke on the need to “join hands” in their fight against the BJP.

What rumours say

On Wednesday (June 10), Mamata’s nephew and the party’s unofficial No. 2 Abhishek Banerjee, who has been the target of the bulk of attacks coming from TMC rebels since the party’s electoral rout and subsequent implosion in Bengal, drove down to 10, Janpath to meet Lok Sabha’s Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi. The Abhishek-Rahul meet went on for nearly 90 minutes and the subject, according to sources in both parties, was once again a “united fight against the BJP”.

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Mamata left for Kolkata on Wednesday (June 10) afternoon. However, by the time of her departure from Delhi, rumours that she and Abhishek had met the Gandhis to discuss a possible TMC merger with the Congress had reached a feverish pitch. Some reports even speculated that the former Bengal chief minister had been offered the post of Congress vice-president if she went through with the merger and that Abhishek, too, would be accommodated in the party as a general secretary. Even more piquant were rumours that Abhishek, during his discussions with Rahul, had proposed that if the merger came through, the Congress must get Mamata elected to the Rajya Sabha aside from granting her the role of party vice-president.

Merger a plan ‘for the future’

Back in Kolkata, Chandan Ghosh Choudhury, a senior spokesperson of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee, added heft to the rumours by conceding to The Federal that “proposal for the merger of the TMC with the Congress has been floated, but an official decision has not yet been taken.” The party spokesman even claimed that the Bengal Congress unit had been consulted before the proposal was brought forward and said that internal deliberations were underway.

Many, including Ghosh Choudhury, speculated that the merger plan was part of the agenda for the “urgent meeting” of all Congress general secretaries, state in-charges and state unit chiefs that had been convened for June 11 by party president Mallikarjun Kharge.

Congress leaders in Delhi, however, told The Federal that Ghosh Choudhury’s information was “only partly true”. A senior AICC office bearer and Gandhi family confidante said, “yes, the possibility of the TMC merging with the Congress has been discussed but as a thing for the future… for now, the discussions largely are about exploring an alliance with the TMC, strengthening the INDIA bloc’s fight against the BJP and about the Congress high command’s assurance that Mamata has their absolute solidarity”.

Merger proposed by Mamata?

A senior party MP considered close to Rahul Gandhi echoed the same line, though gloatingly adding that the proposal to merge with the Congress had come from Mamata herself.

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Dubbing the situation Mamata finds herself in today as a “remarkable turnaround of fate”, the Congress MP said, “Till a month ago, forget an alliance, Mamata did not even consider Congress to be relevant in Bengal. Now, while our leadership is showing a big heart and has offered various options to Mamata…alliance, merger, support from the INDIA bloc; Mamata and her remaining loyalists are keen that the TMC should merge with the Congress”.

Sources said, for now, the discussions between the Gandhis and the Banerjees stress largely on the need to set aside their past differences and work with a more coordinated strategy. West Bengal’s political situation, including organisational pressures on the TMC, was also part of the conversation, according to party insiders.

Sonia showing compassion: Adhir

Former Baharampur MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, among the Bengal Congress unit’s most vocal leaders against Mamata and the TMC, said he was “unaware of any proposal about a merger”.

“I belong to the party’s Bengal unit and I have definitely not heard anything about this merger; maybe it has been discussed or it may just be rumour,” he told The Federal, adding that “Sonia Gandhi is a leader with a big heart and though the Congress has been humiliated by Mamata Banerjee many times, Sonia Gandhi is still showing compassion and solidarity.”

The TMC has not officially commented on the merger speculation, and party sources have described the meetings in Delhi as part of routine Opposition coordination rather than formal negotiations.

Legal barrier

Legal experts, too, pointed out that any discussion of a merger under the circumstances that Mamata is currently battling would be “meaningless”.

“For merger of a party that has a legislative strength in Assembly or Parliament, there is a clearly laid out legal procedure under the 10th Schedule (anti-defection law). There are two clear requirements that have to be met. First is that two-thirds of the party’s legislative strength should agree to the merger and second that the merger has to be approved by the original party. If the original party wants to merge but can’t fulfil the two-thirds requirement, the merger cannot be held legal and if it is pushed through, the party’s MPs can be disqualified,” explained former Lok Sabha Secretary General PDT Achary.

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A Congress MP who is also a senior advocate in Supreme Court described the merger rumours as “figment of some very wild imagination”. “How can it happen? Mamata is the original party, which is not in doubt, but she can’t ensure the merger because, from what we have been hearing, she no longer has support of two-thirds MLAs of her party or two-thirds MPs of her party who will endorse her decision to merge.

“This is also true for those who are part of the rebel group and are saying they will form a separate bloc and join the NDA. They also cannot do it because even if they have the required two-thirds strength, they are not the original party. For a merger to be held valid, both conditions have to be met. Yes, tomorrow, if Mamata is left with zero MPs and zero MLAs, then she can merge right away, or else, if the rebels return to her and say they will accept her decision, then she can merge,” he explained.