Rahul confidante plans to join TMC

Mahua, who had a closed-door meeting with Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee on Monday,  is understood to have offered her services to the party, a move that has created a stir within the inner circles of the Congress.

While neither Mahua nor Mamata is willing to talk about the next step, the development came a day ahead of state Pradesh Congress President Pranab Mukherjee’s scheduled meeting with party leaders here.

Mitra had earlier worked with finance company J P Morgan in New York and London and rose to be the vice-president of the company before returning to India to be part of the change she was keen to be associated with. After joining the Youth Congress in 2008, she became the state coordinator for the “Aam Aadmi ka Sipahi programme,” visiting the remote corners of Bengal in an effort to popularise the schemes of the UPA government.

Mahua is considered very close to Rahul Gandhi, which is why her exclusive meeting with the TMC supremo and subsequent plan to join the TMC ranks is significant. Mahua’s  loss will be particularly felt by the Congress on the eve of the polls to prestigious Kolkata Municipal Corporation and 81  other civic bodies across the state.