Kolkata: Ten months after her ‘national ambition’ was jolted in Goa with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) drawing a blank in the polls, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee embarks on a three-day tour of Meghalaya Monday, her first since 12 of the total 17 Congress MLAs in the northeast state joined her party.
Meghalaya is slated to go to polls in February 2023.
Her visit comes days after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s ambition to emerge as a national challenger to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) suffered a setback in Gujarat, with Arvind Kejriwal’s party relegated to the third position with five MLAs and 13 per cent vote share. This performance in Gujarat has, however, helped the AAP to enter the league of national parties.
Though a national party, the TMC along with the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) requested the Election Commission (EC) in 2019 to retain the tag despite the poor electoral show in the Lok Sabha elections that year.
As part of its plan to have a greater footprint, the Trinamool is looking to emerge as the principal challenger to the ruling parties in poll-bound Meghalaya and Tripura, which are ruled by the NPP-BJP coalition and the BJP respectively.
In Meghalaya, with the five remaining MLAs — who were suspended by the party — also extending support to the Conrad Sangma led NPP-BJP coalition government, the Congress is facing a major crisis.
Political analyst Udayan Bandopadhyay felt it was an “impossible task” for the TMC to win in Meghalaya. “TMC is a West Bengal-based political party. Like Goa, it won’t have any significant impact in either Meghalaya or Tripura. In Meghalaya, the TMC will essentially play the AAP’s role in Gujarat that helped the BJP to win big,” he said.
Prof. Susmita Sengupta of Shillong’s North-Eastern Hill University echoed similar view’s as she highlighted the TMC’s “organisational deficit” in Meghalaya.
“TMC doesn’t have any organisational weight in this state. It’s considered as an outside party and non-compatible in a tribal state like this. The AITC may be a national party but its ethos don’t match with Meghalaya’s. While the party has grabbed senior leaders of the Congress, it will hardly dent the National People’s Party (NPP),” the professor of political science said.
“With the Congress completely decimated, the ruling coalition has no opposition in the state. The TMC may grab a few seats but instead help the NPP win big.”
In August, the NPP announced to contest the state polls alone even as it would continue to support the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
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‘Working to secure absolute majority’
Former Meghalaya chief minister Mukul Sangma, who along with 11 sitting Congress MLAs joined the Trinamool in November last year, hinted that the Congress was not able to deliver in the state.
“Congress speaks about ideologies, but on ground, is the party really fighting? From the very beginning, we wanted to leave the ‘grand old party’ and march with the TMC,” Sangma told ThePrint.
“We are highly enthusiastic to receive Mamata Banerjee in Meghalaya. We have been trying to fix a date since last year. The TMC family here is anxiously waiting for her. We first thought only the executive body will meet, but even the bloc-level leaders are eager to meet her and that signifies the eagerness. We hope her visit will be a big stimulus for the workers on ground,” he said.
When asked about the key challenges before the TMC, Sangma explained that Meghalaya has only voted for an absolute majority once and given fractured mandates since then. “We have identified the reasons and are working to secure an absolute majority. As a new party in the state, there are many unforeseeable challenges and logistical issues. It demands time, focus and resources. We are meticulously preparing for the electoral battle. The TMC understands the overall responsibility a political party should have in a democracy.”
Former minister and suspended Congress MLA Mazel Ampareen Lynghdoh said it was very unfortunate that there is no Congress left in Meghalaya which was a dominant force for four decades.
“With the Congress wiped out, the people of Meghalaya will vote for an alternative. No one quite knows here about Trinamool Congress. So the mandate will go in favour of the existing BJP-NPP coalition. The suspended leaders are also in the process of deciding which party to join before polls and that will further hurt the Congress. As of today, the TMC is not a political player here and has to work very hard to make a big mark,” she told ThePrint.
Former Meghalaya Governor Tathagata Roy dismissed any significant foothold by the Trinamool Congress in Meghalaya.
“In Meghalaya, the significant parties are the Congress and the tribal parties, like the National People’s Party. That’s (NPP) in power. Then there are tribal pressure groups that work from outside the electoral battlefield,” the BJP said. “It’s impossible for the TMC to make a dent in Meghalaya. TMC is identified as a Bengali party. They have no representation anywhere else in the country. Mamata is desperately eyeing an all-India image but will not have any good fortune in Meghalaya.”
The TMC chief will reach Shillong on 12 December, hold a series of meetings and outreach programmes the next day and return to Kolkata on 14 December.
Sources in the Indian Political Action Committee (IPAC) that’s handling the Trinamool’s political strategy in Meghalaya said while no public rally is scheduled, Mamata is likely to hold smaller interactions ahead of Christmas.
She will chair a party workers’ convention at Shillong’s State Central Library along with her nephew Abhishek Banerjee and TMC’s Meghalaya in-charge Manas Bhunia to list out strategies for the upcoming poll. Mamata is likely to make a major announcement for the people of Meghalaya, if Trinamool is voted to power, they said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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