The Trinamool Congress (TMC) or the All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC) is a political party based in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. It was founded by Mamata Banerjee in 1998 after she split from the Indian National Congress.
The party came to power in the state with Mamata Banerjee as the CM in 2011, defeating the Left Front in the Assembly elections and marking the end of the longest democratically elected Communist government in the world.
The Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Banerjee used the 2006-07 protests against the Left Front government over Nandigram and Singur to rally supporters and popularity in Bengal. It joined hands with the Congress in the state for the 2009 Lok Sabha elections and won 19 seats, thus joining the Manmohan Singh government at the Centre. Two years later, it ended the Left’s 34-year rule in Bengal. Earlier, though, the Trinamool had also aligned with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in 1999, when Mamata Banerjee was made Railways Minister.
Besides dominating Bengal, the Trinamool Congress has also contested elections in Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, and Goa. The party is one of the strong opposition voices in the Union parliament.
Does the setting of ‘defeating the BJP’ as a top priority automatically mean that Congress can set the rules, hog as many seats as it desires and generally act as Big Brother to other parties, despite being the WEAKEST link in the MGB? Every political party exists for itself and will never brook another party getting stronger at its expense. Congress simply does not seem capable of shedding its delusions of grandeur. The days of Indira Gandhi no longer exist.
This is the outcome of BLUNDER done by RAHUL in KARNATAKA when his party surrendered power to smaller party JD(S) to keep off BJP from power. But this step resulted in the biggest mistake made by Rahul in Congress history. AS A RESULT, ALL POLITICAL PARTIES LIKE TMC, BSP, SP, RJD, TDP, BJD ETC WILL NOT ALIGN IN FUTURE ELECTIONS BECAUSE ALL PARTIES KNOW THAT IT WILL FACE SAME FATE AS HAPPENED IN UP WHEN SP GOT HUMILIATING DEFEAT IN ASSEMBLY AS WELL AS LOK SABHA POLL. SO CONGRESS WILL NOW BECOME SMALLER PARTY & UNTOUCHABLE. NO PARTY WILL NOW SHARE POWER WITH CONGRESS IN ANY STATE. ALL PARTY WILL ASK CONGRESS TO SURRENDER POWER ON BASIS OF KARNATAKA WHICH IS NOW BECOME MAJOR PRECEDENT FOR FUTURE. This blunder will finish CONGRESS from map of India.
Personally I welcome this development. In fact THIS shows the way how to go about the objective of defeating the BJP in every election. If one MAHA-gathbandhan pan-India is not feasible for state elections, what’s wrong with having multiple gathbandhans all with the same objective? This particular one in Chattisgarh looks a sound one. Mayawati has been showing positive inclination towards the Congress, but in this case by choosing Ajit Jogi I think she has shown great political wisdom.
Ms Mayawati seems to have changed her mind. There will be speculation over what has induced her to do so.