National ambitions minus national party status: TMC woes underlined by EC decision

Announcing its decision, the EC said the TMC had ceased to be a state party in Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, though it continued to be a state party in West Bengal and Tripura, and was accorded state party status in Meghalaya based on the elections this year.

According to Paragraph 6B of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, a national party must get at least 6% vote share in four or more states in the last Lok Sabha or Assembly elections and have at least four MPs; or at least 2% of the seats in the Lok Sabha, with its candidates having been elected from at least three states. In its review, the EC found the TMC did not contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur and got 0.4% and 43.28% of the votes in Tripura and West Bengal respectively. In the Assembly polls from 2016 to 2018, the party’s vote share was 44.91% in West Bengal, 1.41% in Manipur, and 0.3% in Tripura. In the most recent polls, the party got 48.02% of the votes in West Bengal (2021) and did not contest in Manipur (2022).

Party leaders said legal options for challenging the EC decision were being explored. “We are exploring legal options as we are not on the same page with the EC’s decision. It was not an impartial decision. We would request the Election Commission to come out with a statement that all those accorded national status fulfil all the laid down criteria,” said TMC state vice-president Jaiprakash Majumdar. Another party leader said it had to be seen if all the other parties, except the Congress and the BJP, fulfilled the conditions to be granted the coveted status.

Meanwhile, the TMC’s rivals took digs at it over the EC’s decision. Union Minister Anurag Thakur — asked about the poll body’s decision to take the national party status from the TMC, Communist Party of India (CPI), and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) — told reporters in Bulandshahr, “Those who did not get votes, who did not get acceptance by the public and had continuously been on the decline, on them the Election Commission has given its decision as per the rules.”

“The EC should not allow the TMC to use ‘All India’ in its name. In the next few years, they will be reduced to a party without any symbol. No one can become a national party forcibly and by spending money,” said BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh.

Leader of Opposition in the state, Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP, tweeted on Monday, “I sincerely thank Hon’ble Chief Election Commissioner of India Shri @rajivkumarecji (IAS) & @ECISVEEP for derecognising @AITCofficial as a National Party. I raised this issue after Tripura Elections as TMC failed to fulfil the criteria. When are you removing ‘AI’ @AITCofficial.”

State Congress president Adhir Chowdhury said the dreams of the TMC to emerge as a replacement for the grand old party on the national stage had been shattered. “The TMC expanded in West Bengal at the cost of the Congress. It then dreamed of expanding its base outside Bengal by poaching Congress leaders. But now, with the national party status gone, the TMC is a spent force at the national level,” he said.

CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty said on Tuesday, “How did the TMC get national party status? That is a big question because they only exist in West Bengal. In other states, they went to help the BJP.”

— With PTI inputs