Ajit Karn
With no seats in Tripura and only five in Meghalaya, the Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) plans to expand beyond West Bengal for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections have suffered a setback. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s party also failed to open its account in last year’s Goa elections.
In Tripura, the party received fewer votes (0.88%) than NOTA (1.36%), but in Meghalaya, it won 5 seats and 13.7% of the vote. However, after winning 12 of 17 Congress MLAs in November 2021, the party’s victory in five constituencies in this election may dampen its plans.
The Congress, which had its seat in the Meghalaya assembly stolen by the TMC, lashed out on Thursday. “There are parties that believe they can gain strength by removing members of Congress. “However, their performance has fallen short of their expectations,” said Jairam Ramesh, general secretary of the Congress.
In Meghalaya, the Trinamool won four seats in the Garo Hills, the stronghold of party leader and former chief minister Mukul Sangma, but none in the Jaintia Hills. In Tripura, the TMC received nearly 20% of the vote in the 2018 Agartala municipal election, fueling hopes that the party would create a three-cornered race in the Tripura assembly election.
These elections were crucial for the TMC to consolidate its gains in West Bengal, emerge as a potential rival to the Congress in its dominance of the Opposition, and challenge the BJP in at least two or three states. In these elections, the Trinamool tried to avoid the errors it made in Goa by working on the ground for an extended period of time prior to entering the electoral race.
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However, Trinamool asserted that it has a “decent beginning.” “Congratulations to the citizens of Meghalaya for exercising their freedom of speech. Despite having a pipe full of money, the BJP ended up with three seats. We received close to 15% of the vote and five seats on our debut. Only one year has passed since we founded Meghalaya TMC. According to Derek O’Brien, leader of the TMC’s parliamentary party in the Rajya Sabha, this is a respectable beginning by any metric.
