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Babul Supriyo, Azad, Sangma likely to be made TMC national spokespersons
Former Union minister Babul Supriyo and former Congress leaders Kirti Azad and Mukul Sangma will be appointed as the national spokespersons of the TMC.
Three senior leaders who switched sides to join the Trinamool Congress (TMC) last year are likely to get rewarded by the West Bengal’s ruling party, which has also claimed that some lawmakers from other parties are in touch with it for better opportunities, people familiar with the development said.
Former Union minister Babul Supriyo and former Congress leaders Kirti Azad and Mukul Sangma will be appointed as the national spokespersons of the TMC. “The party will soon appoint these three leaders as its national spokespersons,” a senior TMC leader said, requesting anonymity.
While Supriyo quit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to join the TMC in September last year, Sangma switched over to the Mamata Banerjee-led party along with 11 other legislators in November 2021, turning the Congress legislative party in Meghalaya into a TMC team overnight. On November 23, 2021, cricketer-turned politician Azad joined the TMC after meeting the party chief.
The role of a national spokesperson might bring limited exposure for these leaders, one of whom has already served as a chief minister while another was a Union minister of state for nearly seven years. However, the move underlines the TMC’s efforts to expand as a pan-India outfit and not just a regional player.
Earlier, it accommodated Luizinho Falerio from Goa and Sushmita Dev from Assam in the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal.
The senior TMC leader cited above also claimed that at least three former Rajya Sabha members and six Lok Sabha MPs were in touch with the party leadership. He also indicated that a former Congress MP was also keen to get a TMC ticket a few months ago, but the “party is cautiously evaluating the advantages of accommodating such former lawmakers”.
Rejecting the claim, a senior Congress leader termed it TMC’s “figments of imagination”.
