Abhijit Mukherjee, son of late former President Pranab Mukherjee, rejoined the Congress on Wednesday in Kolkata. He was welcomed by Subhankar Sarkar, the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) chief, along with Ghulam Ahmad Mir, AICC general secretary and Jammu & Kashmir MLA, and Pradip Bhattacharya, a former MP and WBPCC chief, among others.
Mukherjee was elected to the West Bengal Assembly in 2011. Following his father’s election to the presidency, he successfully contested the by-election in Murshidabad’s Jangipur Lok Sabha constituency. He had retained the seat in 2014 as well but lost it to TMC’s Khalilur Rahaman.
On July 5, 2021, after Trinamool’s landslide victory, Mukherjee joined Mamata Banerjee’s party. During his return to Congress at Bidhan Bhavan, the WBPCC headquarters in Kolkata, he expressed regret. “As the grandson of a freedom fighter [Kamada Kinkar Mukherjee], I made a mistake by leaving Congress. I apologise for that,” he said.
#WATCH | Kolkata, West Bengal | On re-joining Indian National Congress, the son of late former President Pranab Mukherjee, Abhijit Mukherjee says, "... When I joined Congress, I had a government job... But I took a risk. I was told to contest elections from the Nalhati seat,… pic.twitter.com/O53zZ7vO61
— ANI (@ANI) February 12, 2025
Referring to the recent Delhi Assembly elections, where the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) lost power, Mukherjee emphasised Congress’s importance. “There is no alternative to Congress. In every Indian village, there are at least one or two families who support the party,” he noted.
Mukherjee pledged to travel to remote areas and encourage others to return to Congress. “Time and again, Congress has shown its ability to unite people like no other party. The Delhi elections demonstrated that no one can move forward without Congress’s support,” he added.
Ghulam Ahmad Mir, the party’s in-charge in West Bengal and Jharkhand, claimed that Mukherjee was looking to return to Congress for the last one year, saying that he has at last returned home. The J&K legislator added that today, the country faces only two ideologies. One is a divisive force and the other is a secular force which believes in constitutional equality.
Meanwhile, Sarkar highlighted Mukherjee’s return to invite others who would want to join, saying the party is keeping the doors open for those who had left.
Speaking about infighting and people leaving Congress, Bhattacharya had last month expressed regret on losing out Mamata Banerjee. The former WBPCC chief had said that the Congress is still paying the price for expelling the West Bengal chief minister.
