Trinamool Congress removes its Tripura president, no reasons given yet

A press statement issued by the party announced Wednesday morning, “Subal Bhowmik is being relieved from his duties of state president of Tripura Pradesh Trinamool Congress with immediate effect. All other members of the state committee, state youth committee, state Mahila committee, state SC cell and state ST cell shall continue in their positions as-is.”

The statement also informed that Trinamool Congress Tripura in-charge Rajib Banerjee and Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev would “look after” the functioning of the party in Tripura till a new state president is appointed.

Bhowmik has changed political parties seven times till now and used to be BJP’s state vice-president till the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, when he shifted to Congress and contested with a Congress ticket. He lost to BJP contestant Pratima Bhowmik, who is now a minister of state in the Narendra Modi Cabinet. He later shifted again to Trinamool Congress in July 2021.

While no reaction could be sourced from Bhowmik about his next course of action, several TMC leaders and supporters, including Baptu Chakraborty, a general secretary of the party’s state committee, had quit Trinamool and moved back to Congress a month back alleging the Bengal-based party was working in connivance with BJP.

Last year, the TMC had got 16.39 per cent vote share in the state urban local body elections even as it had finished second in the Agartala Municipal Corporation polls, and claimed itself to be “BJP’s real challenger”. However, the party’s prospects were dimmed by its performance in the Assembly by-polls two months back, where TMC ended up with less than 3 per cent vote share.

Trinamool Congress has had three previous attempts to expand its party base in Tripura, starting with former chief minister Sudhir Ranjan Majumder who started TMC’s state unit in 1999.

Six Congress MLAs shifted camps and joined Trinamool Congress in 2016, only to further shift to BJP a year later. TMC’s rank and file has seen a slight swell since the party’s win in Bengal earlier last year.