As the Trinamool Congress faces an unprecedented crisis, rumours are rife about a possible merger with the Congress party, triggered by a meeting between party supremo Mamata Banerjee and senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi.
Both the leaders met on Tuesday, a day after the crucial meeting of the INDIA alliance in New Delhi, where Mamata Banerjee called on the opposition parties to set aside differences and work together to take on the BJP regarding various public issues.
While both parties did not disclose details of the meeting between the two veteran leaders, sources acknowledged that discussions on the future of anti-BJP politics in Bengal and the changing political situation in the state figured in the conversations, though neither side officially confirmed reports of merger talks.
Further intensifying speculations, on Wednesday, TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee met the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi.
Sources said the Rahul-Abhishek meeting was being seen as part of the ongoing engagement between the Congress and the TMC following discussions at the INDIA bloc meeting held in Delhi earlier this week.
However, sources from the TMC have rejected the rumours as "baseless," stressing that there is no plan to join the Congress.
The speculations came as the TMC, which ruled West Bengal for 15 years, faced an unprecedented crisis with several of its legislators and parliamentarians staging a rebellion against the party leadership after its embarrassing debacle in the recently concluded Assembly polls.
Last week, more than two-thirds of the party's MLAs -- 58 of its 80 legislators -- broke away from the official TMC legislature party and secured recognition as the principal opposition bloc in the Assembly under expelled MLA Ritabrata Banerjee.
The crisis reached Delhi last week, with rebel MPs led by Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar claiming support from over 20 Lok Sabha MPs who want to break away.
Further intensifying the turbulence, the party's Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev on Wednesday resigned from the post and membership of the TMC, days after another MP and close aide of Mamata, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy also stepped down.
Meanwhile, Ritabrata Banerjee, who has been appointed the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly on Wednesday said that the dissident camp led by him was the "real TMC" and stressed that he had no plans to merge with the grand old party.
Claiming that the strength of the dissident bloc had risen from 58 to 64 MLAs, Ritabrata said the rebels enjoyed the support of a majority of the party's legislators and a growing number of MPs, and would continue to function under the Trinamool Congress banner.
"We are the real Trinamool Congress. We are not merging with the Congress," Ritabrata told reporters outside the state assembly.
At the same time, reports of a possible merger between the TMC and Congress have sparked some uncomfortable discussions within the grand old party's West Bengal leadership.
At the centre of the debate is a politically sensitive question: if the Congress leadership moves closer to Mamata Banerjee, will Bengal Congress workers -- many of whom have spent years opposing the TMC -- accept her as one of their own?
A section of state leaders believes that embracing Mamata Banerjee now would burden the Congress with the political baggage of 15 years of alleged corruption, misgovernance and organisational erosion under TMC rule.
Veteran Congress leaders Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Abdul Mannan have emerged as the most vocal opponents of any such move.
"I have full faith in the Congress leadership. No alliance with Mamata Banerjee. If you mix drainage water with clean water, it will pollute the clean water too," Mannan said.
Chowdhury, former state Congress president and bitter critic of Banerjee, struck an even sharper note.
"The same Mamata Banerjee who once broke the Congress, ensuring Congress was wiped out from Bengal, now finds herself compelled to seek the support of the Gandhi family. One has to face the consequences of one's political actions," he said.
State Congress president Shubhankar Sarkar adopted a more calibrated position, making it clear that anyone seeking to join the party would first have to accept Rahul Gandhi's leadership.
"Anyone who accepts Rahul Gandhi as the future prime minister of the country and the leader of the Congress and the opposition is welcome in the party," Sarkar said.
At the same time, he appeared to draw a distinction between Mamata Banerjee and those facing allegations of corruption.
"If someone is trying to take shelter under the Congress umbrella merely to escape corruption charges, the doors are not open for them," he said in an apparent reference to sections of the TMC leadership.
(With inputs from PTI)