Kolkata: Trinamool Congress on September 4 received a jolt when the party-backed Rajya Sabha MP Jayanta Bhattacharya returned to the Congress fold.

State Congress sources said that Bhattacharya met All India Congress Committee (AICC) president Sonia Gandhi along with former PCC chief Somen Mitra and party legislator Shankar Singh during the day and re-joined the party.

The sources said that following a summon from the Congress president, the former PCC chief left for Delhi with Bhattacharya on September 3 evening.

Bhattacharya, who won the Rajya Sabha poll as an independent supported by TC from West Bengal in 2000 defeating Congress candidate Debaprasad Roy, fell out with TC chief Mamta Banerjee and had even voted in recent Vice-Presidential election defying the party's decision to abstain from voting.

The Rajya Sabha MP had recently criticised Banerjee for her style of functioning.

Bhattacharya had won the Lok Sabha poll in 1996 on Congress ticket from Tamluk constituency.

PTI