Late President Pranab Mukherjee’s son Abhijit Mukherjee is all set to join the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal today at 4 pm, as per reports. After dismissing rumours of quitting Congress earlier in June, Mukherjee was seen defending Mamata Banerjee through his Tweets off-late.
As per an India Today report, Mukherjee, a former Congress MP from Jangipur had been in talks with the leaders of the TMC for the past few weeks. Mukherjee had had also paid a visit to Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee in Kolkata last month.
Recently, Abhijit Mukherjee has been sharing updates put out by the TMC and was also seen voicing his support for Mamata Banerjee on Twitter.
Defending Banerjee and her government in the recent fake vaccination scam, Mukherjee in a tweet said, “If Didi Mamata Banerjee is to be blamed personally for a fake vaccination camp by an impersonating IAS Officer Debanjan Deb, then surely ModiJi is to blamed for all the scams by Nirav Modi,Vijay Mallya, Mehul Choksi etc. So no point blaming the Govt of WB for an individual’s act”.
https://twitter.com/ABHIJIT_LS/status/1408351334328258560?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwMukherjee had refuted claims of joining TMC
Early last month Mukherjee had refuted claims of switching over. Replying to the alleged rumours after he was seen with some TMC leaders, Mukherjee said those were some of his father’s former Congress colleagues “who are now in Trinamool” and had come to have tea with him.
“But, I have known them for long, as they were close to my father. To speculate that just because friends came to meet me, I will join TMC, is stretching it too far,” Mukherjee said defending himself.
These leaders were MP Khalilur Rahman from Jangipur, MP Abu Taher Khan from Murshidabad and TMC ministers Akhrruzzaman and Sabina Yesmin.
Speculations in 2018
Similar speculations were made in 2018 about Mukherjee ditching Congress to join the TMC just ahead of the Lok Sabha 2019 elections.
As per a Financial Express report, Abhijit, then a Lok Sabha MP, was allegedly approached by the TMC to join ranks with the party. However, Mukherjee declined the offer stating that the move would be “disrespectful towards his father”.
Spat over memoir
Mukherjee was recently in news for a spat with his sister Sharmistha over his father’s memoir.
A controversy erupted when the former Lok Sabha MP Abhijit Mukherjee asked the publishers to seek his clearance before publishing the book while his sister and Congress leader Sharmistha Mukherjee asked him not to create “unnecessary hurdles” in the release.
Mukherjee had also faced a huge backlash in 2012 after he called the women protestors who were protesting against the then government in the aftermath of the infamous Delhi gang rape case as “dented and painted”. He was later made to apologize by his father over his insensitive comment.