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.
It would be more productive if the SP and the BSP have a genuine meeting of hearts and confine their focus to Uttar Pradesh, not dissipate their energies pursuing the chimera of a national front. As it is, transfer of votes between the supporters of the two parties is not seamless. If the Congress, with a conversion rate of 7%, wishes to join the coalition, it should be as a very minor partner, as in Bihar. A lot will also depend on how well the Yogi administration performs in the next two years.