Trinamool, Cong say looking to deepen ties

Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee met Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday to explore possibilities to deepen ties, a day after party chief Mamata Banerjee met Sonia Gandhi, but the regional party junked speculation that the two outfits were discussing a merger.

- Saubhadra Chatterji

A senior TMC leader, aware of the details said: “The two leaders discussed a lot of issues including the plans of the INDIA alliance and the way ahead for the two parties. There were also some political discussions related to Rahul Gandhi's remarks at the INDIA meeting on vote theft.”

“There were also discussions on better coordination and for the next INDIA meeting which will take place in Hyderabad,” the leader said.

The back-to-back meetings, however, betrayed a sense of desperation in the TMC which lost power in West Bengal last month after 15 years. Since then, the party has lurched from one crisis to the next: first, 59 of its 78 legislators in the state (two were expelled) rebelled and backed Ritabrata Banerjee as leader of the opposition in the assembly, then at least 16 of its Lok Sabha members rebelled and met chief minister Suvendu Adhikari, and two of its 13 Rajya Sabha members have resigned.