Former President Pranab Mukherjee's son Abhijit Mukherjee rejoins Congress

Abhijit Mukherjee, the son of former President late Pranab Mukherjee, returned to the Congress on Wednesday, February 12, after a brief stint with Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress (TMC). Mukherjee formally joined the party in Kolkata in the presence of AICC in-charge Ghulam Ahmad Mir and other state leaders. 

“...He (Abhijit Mukherjee) was in touch with the leadership and state PCC for the last year... Today, it has been decided that Abhijit Mukherjee (Pranab Mukherjee's son) will join Congress again,” Mir said earlier in the day.

In 2020, after Pranab Mukherjee’s death, both his son Abhijit and daughter Sharmistha Mukherjee quit the Congress party. Abhijit left the party in July 2021 to join the TMC after the Mamata Banerjee-led party came to power in the state for the third time in a row. 

Sharmistha, however, quit active politics in September 2021. Though she did not join any party, she has, on various occasions, publicly criticised the Congress party.

Lost the 2019 Lok Sabha election

Abhijit lost the 2019 Lok Sabha election from the Jangipur seat to TMC candidate Khalilur Rahaman. “For two-and-a-hald years I carried out whatever assignment was given to me by the Congress. But they didn’t give me enough assignments, whatever may be the reason. I was gradually marginalised by a particular person, a particular group. In the meantime, Mamata Didi called me back as I had sought time from her…I met them and they offered me to join them," he had told news agency ANI.

Abhijit, with a corporate background, entered politics in 2011 when he won the assembly polls in Nalhati constituency of Birbhum district. In 2012, he won the Jangipur Lok Sabha constituency by-election on a Congress ticket, defeating CPM’s Muzaffar Hussain. The seat was vacated by Pranab Mukherjee after he became President.

Abhijit was re-elected to Lok Sabha from Jangipur in the 2014 polls but lost the seat in 2019 to Khalilur Rahaman of Trinamool Congress.