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Trinamool Congress unveils its Tripura team for state elections next year
Tripura TMC chief Subal Bhoumik said he was confident that the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool will emerge as the alternative to the BJP in the 2023 state elections.
AGARTALA: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee-led party Trinamool Congress unveiled its state committee headed by Subal Bhowmik on Friday.
“I have been given the responsibility of the new committee. We are committed to work together against this fascist regime. We are confident that Trinamool Congress will be the alternative to BJP in 2023,” Bhowmik said after the party announced the Tripura Pradesh Trinamool Congress State Committee on Twitter.
Bhowmik, who was a Congress legislator in 2008, moved to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as its vice president in 2017, returned to the Congress in 2019 to contest the Lok Sabha elections against BJP’s Pratima Bhowmik. After his defeat to Pratima, who was subsequently inducted as junior social justice minister at the Centre, Subal Bhowmik joined the TMC.
Apart from Subal Bhowmik, the state committee comprises a six-member core committee including Trinamool MP Sushmita Dev, former BJP legislator Asish Das, Asish Lal Singh, Brighu Ram Reang and Mamon Khan.
Former Bengal minister Rajib Banerjee will be in-charge of the state.
The committee has eight vice presidents, five general secretaries, fourteen secretaries, seven joint secretaries along with a 72-member executive committee and four frontal wings for youth, women, scheduled tribe and scheduled caste.
The TMC stepped up its efforts to gain a toehold in the state last year after the party’s spectacular victory in Bengal elections. A team of election strategist Prashant Kishor’s firm, Indian - Political Action Committee (I-PAC) was sent to the stte to gauge the mood but was forced to stay inside a hotel in Agartala for violating Covid-19 norms.
To be sure, the TMC did attempt to expand its base under the leadership of former chief minister Sudhir Ranjan Majumder in 1999. Later, the party tried to emerge as the main opponent of the erstwhile Left Front by inducting six Congress legislators in 2016. But a year later, the legislators moved to the BJP and two of them returned to Congress two months back.
The TMC did attempt to emerge as the lead opposition party in last year’s civic polls and ended up with 16.39% votes, next to the CPI (M) which received 18.13% votes. The BJP was way ahead with 59% votes.
BJP spokesperson Nabendu Bhattacharya referred to the outcome of the civic polls to diss the TMC. “We all are aware of the law and order in Bengal. Trinamool Congress has no base here and the people gave their mandate against them in last civic polls,” Bhattacharya said.
