4 months after crushing defeat in assembly by-polls, TMC tries to put its Tripura gameplan back on track

Senior Trinamool leaders including MP Kakali Ghosh Dastidar, Tripura joint in-charge Rajib Banerjee, joint state in-charge and Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev attended the gathering Monday.

Moitra said people wanted an alternative to the CPI(M)-led Left Front in Tripura before the 2018 assembly polls and so voted for the BJP. (Express photo)

Four months after it faced a crushing defeat in the Tripura assembly by-polls, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) Monday sounded the poll bugle, urging voters to elect it to power in the state elections next year.

Addressing a rally in front of Rabindra Shatabarshiki Bhawan in Agartala Monday afternoon, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra said: “Give a chance to the TMC here. You gave a chance to the BJP. They couldn’t deliver… What new will they deliver? Bad things don’t need to be tested twice. The experience in the last five years was enough for people to see what the BJP is made of. The BJP can’t win again based on false promises.”

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Moitra said people wanted an alternative to the CPI(M)-led Left Front in Tripura before the 2018 assembly polls and so voted for the BJP.

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“After so many years, people took it upon themselves to choose an alternative and the CM could not even run the government for five years. The BJP itself had to replace him. What must be the level of incompetence to warrant such a move!” she said, adding that the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC has been successfully running its third consecutive government in West Bengal.

She said gang rape and rapes of minors were the norms in Gujarat and Tripura, while the Bengal government was providing benefits of welfare measures at the doorstep of citizens. Moitra added that if the TMC were to be elected in Tripura, the government would offer welfare benefits similar to those enjoyed by the residents of West Bengal.

Senior Trinamool leaders including MP Kakali Ghosh Dastidar, Tripura joint in-charge Rajib Banerjee, joint state in-charge and Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev attended the gathering Monday. TMC leaders also alleged that the CPI(M) was maintaining a clandestine link with the BJP.

In the past, the TMC made some strong moves to expand the party base in Tripura, starting with former chief minister Sudhir Ranjan Majumder opening a state unit in 1999.

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Also, six Congress MLAs shifted camps and joined the TMC in 2016, only to defect to the BJP a year later.

Last year, the TMC bagged 16.39 per cent vote share in the state urban local body elections and finished second in the Agartala Municipal Corporation polls. However, the party’s prospects dimmed after its poor performance in the assembly by-polls, wherein the TMC got less than 3 per cent vote share.

Meanwhile, TMC’s ranks have swelled since the party’s win in Bengal earlier last year. However, a large share of TMC’s senior leaders including its former state youth convener Baptu Chakraborty recently shifted to the Congress while the party itself removed its former state president Subal Bhowmik, holding him responsible for ‘poor performance’ in the assembly bye-elections.