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Late President Pranab Mukherjee’s son Abhijit joins TMC; thanks CM Banerjee
Mukherjee was welcomed into the TMC by minister Partha Chatterjee and the party’s leader in the Lok Sabha, Sudip Bandopadhyay
Abhijit Mukherjee, a former Congress Lok Sabha member from Bengal and son of former President Pranab Mukherjee, joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) at the ruling party’s headquarters in Kolkata at little after 4pm on Monday.
“Mamata Banerjee stopped the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bengal. I feel that under her leadership, it may become possible in India as well. I am joining the TMC as a primary member. Had I done so earlier, people would have thought that I have an eye on some prime position. They cannot say so now. Let the TMC utilise my services in whatever way it wants. I am still active,” Mukherjee, 61, said.
Mukherjee was welcomed into the TMC by minister Partha Chatterjee and the party’s leader in the Lok Sabha, Sudip Bandopadhyay.
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Chatterjee said Mukherjee had approached the chief minister through her nephew and TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
“I am grateful to Mamata Didi and Abhishek Babu for letting me in,” said Mukherjee. His leaving the Congress was seen as a blow to the party. However, Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury did not wish to comment on his departure.
“It is not a question about the Congress getting strong or weak. He is the son of the great Pranab Mukherjee. He must have thought that joining another party is the right thing to do. I don’t want to comment on his decision,” said Chowdhury.
Mukherjee said, “I left my job and joined the Congress in 2011. My father never asked me to join politics. He left the decision to me. I am not holding any post in the Congress. I don’t even know whether my membership in the party has been renewed.” He had worked for Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, Maruti Udyog Limited and the Steel Authority of India as a corporate executive before joining politics.
Mukherjee became an MLA from Nalhati in Birbhum district in 2011 when the TMC came to power by ending the Left Front’s 34-year-long regime. The TMC and Congress contested as allies then.
“My victory from Nalhati became possible entirely because of the anti-Left storm Mamata Banerjee raised in 2011. I had no role to play in that,” said Mukherjee.
He subsequently won the Jangipur Lok Sabha seat in Murshidabad district in the 2012 by-poll when his father vacated the seat. He won the seat again in 2014. In 2019, he lost the seat to TMC’s Khalilur Rahaman.
On Monday, he thanked some TMC leaders in Murshidabad for inspiring him to join the ruling party. Mukherjee’s sister, Sharmistha, is a Congress leader in Delhi.
