West Bengal Congress President Shubhankar Sarkar on Tuesday invited Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee to the party’s Martyrs’ Day event in Kolkata while asking her to acknowledge that leaving Congress nearly three decades ago was a “mistake”, PTI reported.

The Congress is organising its Martyrs’ Day programme at Shahid Minar on July 21. The event marks the anniversary of the deaths of 13 people who allegedly died in police firing on a Youth Congress rally led by Banerjee on July 21, 1993.

Sarkar told reporters that if Banerjee publicly says that leaving the Congress was a mistake and comes to the Shahid Minar stage to pay homage to the martyrs, it would be an important act of “political atonement”, PTI reported.

“If Mamata Banerjee really has the courage, she should not distort history,” the news agency quoted him as saying.

Sarkar said it was a historical fact that the protest in 1993 was organised under the banner of the Youth Congress, and that “there is no scope to deny it”.

Banerjee left Congress in December 1997 to form the Trinamool Congress, which came into being on January 1, 1998.

Over the years, the Trinamool Congress has been marking Martyrs’ Day with large public rallies to showcase the party's organisational strength. The Congress has also been marking the day with smaller events.

However, the Trinamool Congress has been beset by defections and internal rebellions since it was defeated by the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2026 West Bengal elections.

HC allows TMC to hold Martyrs’ Day meet near Birla Planetarium

The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday allowed the Trinamool Congress to hold Martyrs’ Day programme on July 21 at an alternate venue near the Birla Planetarium, Live Law reported.

The judgement came after the BJP government in West Bengal opposed TMC’s request to organise the event at its traditional venue outside Victoria House.

Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya directed the Kolkata Police to permit the gathering on one side of the road in front of the planetarium while keeping the other side open to traffic, Live Law reported. The Court also capped attendance at 3,000 people and directed the police to deploy adequate personnel to maintain law and order.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.