Overview
- Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury publicly invited Mamata Banerjee on Thursday to rejoin the party and lead its West Bengal unit, and he urged her to 'leave behind' what he called her 'baggage'.
- The Trinamool Congress remains deeply split with 58 rebel MLAs recognised by the Assembly speaker as a rival legislature bloc and a separate group of rebel MPs reported to have joined the NCPI and given support to the NDA at the Centre.
- Mamata has been engaging with the INDIA opposition bloc, criticised Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar at a Delhi meeting, and showed visible cooperation with senior Congress figures including Sonia Gandhi.
- TMC loyalists said any return would require a formal offer from the Congress high command, while BJP leaders declared the party politically finished and are using the crisis to press their advantage ahead of the bypolls.
- The proposal revives a historic irony—Mamata left Congress in 1998 to form the TMC—and sets up immediate tactical tests in Nandigram and Rejinagar on October 6 that could determine whether cooperation turns into longer-term realignment.