In another setback for the Congress in West Bengal, late President Pranab Mukherjee’s son Abhijit Mukherjee is set to join Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Monday.
Abhijit Mukherjee has been a two-term MP in the Lok Sabha in his father’s seat of Jangipur. But he lost the last election.
Even though he is not a political heavyweight, his shift to TMC could be a major embarrassment for the Congress, which has lost some of its prominent faces in recent years.
Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada, Himanta Biswa Sarma are some of the prominent leaders who left the Congress to join the Bharatiya Janata Party in the past few years.
Abhijit Mukherjee could not be contacted. But a senior TMC leader said Abhijit Mukherjee met the party’s second-in-command Abhishek Banerjee two weeks ago to discuss his prospects.
In the recent West Bengal elections, the Congress drew its first-ever blank and won no seat.