Even as the crisis in the Trinamool Congress (TMC) deepened further, the Congress party on Thursday dismissed as “baseless” the speculation over the possibility of a merger of the Mamata Banerjee-led party with the grand old party.
At a media interaction here, Congress Organisation General Secretary K C Venugopal said all reports suggesting the merger were “baseless rumours”.
He said the recent meetings between TMC leaders Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee and the top Congress leadership were “routine engagements as part of INDIA alliance’s discussion”.
“How can I respond to rumours and speculation?” he wondered when asked for reaction to the reports about the possibility of the TMC’s merger into his party. “Of course, we will work together against the anti-democratic BJP government,” he added.
There was intense speculation in political circles on Wednesday that the beleaguered former chief minister of West Bengal was weighing the option of merging her TMC into the Congress in the wake of the exit of a large number of her party MLAs and MPs from the party following its defeat in the recent Assembly elections.
Meanwhile, the TMC suffered another jolt when Rajya Sabha member Prakash Chik Baraik resigned from the Upper House and the party. His departure follows the exits of senior TMC leaders Sukhendu Sekhar Ray and Sushmita Dev from the Upper House. Another TMC Rajya Sabha member Rukmini Mallick is learnt to have written to the Rajya Sabha Secretariat, expressing her desire to resign from the House.