GG News Bureau
Kolkata, 9th Feb. In poll-bound Tripura, the Trinamool Congress is making every effort, including running campaigns by party chief Mamata Banerjee, to persuade voters to reject the national parties – the BJP, Congress, and the Left – and vote for the Trinamool.
While the Trinamool is the main opposition party in Meghalaya, it is a minor player in Tripura, contesting alone in less than half of the state’s seats.
But, for Banerjee, Tripura has been a political jinx that she is determined to break.
“Everyone is talking about the Bangla model. We are winning global awards. They told you they will give ₹ 15 lakh. Did you get the money? Now even your LIC (Life Insurance Corporation) money will go,” she said during campaigning in Tripura.
“We will not leave Tripura. We have a long association and I want to develop Tripura like I have done in Bengal,” Banerjee said at the rally.
The party is striving to establish a presence in the northeastern state ahead of the upcoming election. Tripura is critical to the Trinamool Congress’s national expansion plans.
The Trinamool is contesting 28 of the state’s 60 seats after an unsuccessful attempt in Goa. In 1999, the Trinamool Congress formed a state unit in Agartala. Six Congress MLAs joined the Trinamool in Tripura in 2016, but all joined the BJP a year later.
The Trinamool received less than 1% of the vote in the 2018 state election, which the BJP easily won.
Banerjee has been attempting to make political inroads in Tripura since the formation of the Trinamool. Tripura is the only Bengali-majority state after Bengal.
Sudip Roy Burman, a politician who has won elections for over two decades, was one of those who briefly joined the Trinamool.
“The Trinamool is not a factor. If someone has come here as a vote cutter, the people are conscious enough. They know what happened to the Trinamool in Goa or Manipur,” said Burman, now a Congress MLA.
He claimed that the BJP, which is seeking to retain Tripura, regards the Trinamool as a minor player.
“This is not for the first time the Trinamool came to Tripura. They have been coming here since 1999 when they were with the BJP. Every time they come here, they have to shutter up and return to Kolkata after the election results are out,” said Tripura Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Jishnu Dev Barma.
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