Mallika Dureja
Trinamool Congress’s plan to grow will be put to the test again on February 27, when a new state assembly is chosen in Meghalaya. Last year, the party tried to win elections in Goa, but failed.
Under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee, the ruling party in West Bengal has won three straight assembly elections in its home state. However, the party’s plans to expand outside of Bengal to solidify its position as a key political group have run into problems. The TMC, which is a national party, is looking for ways to join the government or fight against it in more states.
Last year, it ran for the Goa assembly but didn’t win any seats. In the past, the party ran for a few seats in the northeast and some of West Bengal’s neighbouring states. Even though some of its candidates won, the TMC wasn’t able to make the difference it wanted.
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The Meghalaya elections are the best chance the TMC has had so far. In a political coup on November 25, 2021, 12 of Meghalaya’s 17 Congress MLAs, including former chief minister Mukul Sangma, switched to the TMC. This gave the party the ready-made position of main opposition in the assembly. Banerjee’s party has never been able to sit in any assembly outside of West Bengal as the main opposition party.
The chances of the TMC in the state got better when Sangma joined the party. A TMC leader who asked not to be named said, “We hope to do well in the Garo and Khasi hills.” About seven seats are in the Jaintia hills, but experts say it might be hard for the TMC to win votes there.
In Goa, where the election was only five months away, the TMC only started campaigning a few weeks before the election. In Meghalaya, however, they have been there for more than a year. Derek O’Brien, the leader of the TMC in the Rajya Sabha, said, “We have given the people of the state a document with our time-bound goals.”
“After our historic three-peat in West Bengal, we opened offices in Meghalaya, Assam, Tripura, and Goa. TMC doesn’t act cocky before election results. We’ve lived in Meghalaya for more than a year. We ran a campaign with a lot of heart. O’Brien said, “Let’s wait until March 2.” On March 2, the results of the polls will be made public.
The TMC has a unique chance if it becomes the main opposition party, but two party leaders have said that if Meghalaya also rejects the TMC, the party will have to start over.
