With the general elections nearing, the Trinamool Congress is trying really hard to become a national force leading the fight against the saffron camp. In the past, pumped by the West Bengal victory, the TMC has tried to expand the party in the Northeast. In Tripura, where the party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee held his first rally on October 31, clearly showed the intentions of the party to create a firm foothold in Tripura. After the return of Mamata Banerjee as the chief minister for the third time in West Bengal, TMC knows that this is the best time to spread the party outside Bengal. Although TMC is a recognized national party, its national party status is in danger and it is expected to lose the status when it will be reviewed by the Election Commission in 2024. Retaining the national party status is crucial for Mamata’s national ambitions.

Back in the Northeast, National Secretary Abhishek has declared that in 2023 Tripura assembly elections would be swept by TMC ending the BJP’s reign. Having said this, TMC is actually not gaining any momentum in the Northeast so far. Even Abhishek’s claims came in a rally attended by a few hundred. But then again, it’s the ‘TMC’, led by Didi and they must never be underestimated. The party’s strategy seems to be more about attracting media headlines for now. And yes, we must admit that they have been super successful in doing so. However, the re-induction of West Bengal state minister Rajib Banerjee to the party in Agartala has sent a strong message to the disgruntled section of BJP leaders in Tripura. The message was aimed at rebel BJP MLAs led by Sudip Barman of the Agartala constituency. The other disgruntled MLAs are Ashish Kumar Saha, Burbamohan Tripura, and Diba Chandra Hrangkhawl. Not to forget that Sudip and his associates had earlier joined TMC in 2016 leaving the Congress and later within a year left TMC to join the BJP.

However, in the ongoing civic body polls, TMC has failed to field candidates for all the 334 seats and is contesting only on 124 seats. In the Agartala Municipal Corporation, it managed to field candidates in all the 51 seats due to the ‘secret’ support it received from the rebel Sudip camp, which has its influence in the Agartala area. The fact is TMC is yet to build an organization across the state. Apart from this, it still lacks a credible face in Tripura. It seems that the TMC is targeting the north-eastern state mainly to achieve at least 6% vote share or secure at least 3 seats in the state assembly to save its national party status in 2024. In Tripura, Congress still has a vote base, which shifted towards the BJP in the 2018 state assembly polls but a section returned to the party in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Although TMC has been successful in attracting the Congress voters in many places, the fact remains that the party in its current scenario is still a weak player for the upcoming 2023 state assembly polls, despite getting over the top coverage from a section of favourable media houses.