Holding the Congress responsible for the break-up of its alliance with the Trinamool Congress for the upcoming polls to civic bodies across the State including the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, Subrata Mukherjee, one of the working presidents of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC), is all set to re-join the Trinamool Congress.
Mr. Mukherjee, who will be formally announcing his decision on Wednesday, had left the Trinamool Congress five years ago.
One of the main reasons why he had decided to resign from the Congress is that the party has not been sufficiently “opposed” to the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Mr. Mukherjee said here on Tuesday. “The alliance (involving the Congress and the Trinamool Congress) should not have broken up. I think it is the Congress that broke it up”, he asserted.
Mr. Mukherjee's decision to leave the Congress has been the most significant development in the Opposition camp in the run-up to the civic polls, coming in the wake of Ms. Banerjee's announcement on Sunday that the alliance had collapsed in West Bengal.
“My decision is firm and final,” said Mr. Mukherjee who had left the Trinamool Congress following differences with Ms. Banerjee over an electoral tie-up with the Congress that he was in favour of for the 2005 civic polls which saw the Left Front come up trumps.
Mr. Mukherjee was Mayor of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation when he was in the Trinamool Congress. He said his decision to officially announce his return to the party a day after the final day of submission of nomination papers for the civic polls discounts speculation that his move is aimed at assuming the office of Mayor in the event of the Trinamool Congress winning a majority.
Pradip Bhattacharya, the other working president of the WBPCC, expressed surprise over Mr. Mukherjee's decision to quit the party. He said Mr. Mukherjee was with him when matters related to seat-adjustments with the Trinamool Congress for the civic polls were being discussed but he never expressed his disapproval.
