Abhijit Mukherjee still sounds confused about continuing in Congress

Kolkata: Despite clarifying his stand with the Congress, Abhijit Mukherjee, son of former President Pranab Mukherjee, is still in the realm of speculation with recent tweets that reinforced rumours of his switching over to the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress.

Quoting sources, an NDTV report said that Mukherjee had met with Trinamool Congress leaders last week.

On Friday, Mukherjee had written in a now-deleted tweet that he has not said anything on the issue to anyone. Anyhow, there was no outright denial that he was joining Mamata Banerjee's party. Mukherjee had also told the Press Trust of India that he will remain in the Congress and reports that he was joining Trinamool or any other party are not correct on the same day.

Political rumours and speculations say that Mukherjee will be offered the Jangipur assembly seat by the Trinamool where by-poll is to be held soon. Jangipur parliamentary constituency was the stronghold of Pranab Mukherjee, from where he won twice as a Congress MP till he vacated it in 2012 to run for President. Abhijit Mukherjee won by-polls in the Jangipur parliamentary constituency after his father vacated the seat and in 2014 as well. He lost to the Trinamool's Khalilur Rahman in 2019.

Besides Mukherjee, the other big name said to be headed to the Trinamool Congress is its alum, Rajib Banerjee. Banerjee joined the BJP just before the April-May state election and has been counted among leaders looking for homecoming since Mamata Banerjee's massive victory in the state election.

Banerjee's homecoming is widely expected as he had criticised the BJP in recent Facebook posts and also had met Trinamool leaders including Partho Chatterjee over the weekend.