Mamata Banerjee seeks close Congress ties, triggers buzz of 'merger wish'

New Delhi: A day after poll-battered TMC leader Mamata Banerjee met Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, the former's nephew Abhishek Banerjee met Rahul Gandhi here on Wednesday amid clear indication of TMC leaders desperately seeking bailout and shield through closer ties with Congress and other Opposition parties against BJP.

Banerjees' outreach, a departure from their aloofness with Congress and INDIA bloc before their perch in power crumbled like cookies, has triggered a buzz that the TMC leader may be even open to merge her party with Congress. But TMC campers sought to dismiss it as "mere speculation and rumourmongering". The continuous pole-vaulting of TMC legislators to BJP side provided an ironic backdrop for the Banerjees seeking out Congress shoulders to lean on.

However, many Congress leaders in West Bengal are unenthusiastic about the leadership aligning with TMC because they think that besides offering a shield to Banerjee, it will also risk Congress ending up absorbing a share of the post-poll public anger against TMC, just as it happened when Congress tied up with CPI-M.