Concentrate on Bengal: TMC’s electoral misadventures irk senior leaders

NEW DELHI: West Bengal’s ruling party, Trinamool Congress’ (TMC’s) repeated electoral “misadventures” and unrealistic national ambitions are costing the party its image and base in the state, according to some of its leaders. A large section of TMC leaders, mostly from the old guard, are unhappy with the party’s decision to contest elections in states where it does not have any base and is facing repeated defeats. Many of these leaders blame Abhishek Banerjee, the party’s second-in-command, for these “misadventures”.
A senior TMC functionary from Kolkata who did not wish to come on record, told The Sunday Guardian that the party was venturing into elections in states where it knew it would not be able to make any difference and in turn causing embarrassment for the party. The leader also accused the Prashant Kishor-led IPAC of “misleading” the TMC.
“The TMC is being led and guided by Prashant Kishor, who is advising the leadership incorrectly. Look at Goa, now Tripura, we have been embarrassed. Goa was totally unnecessary for the party; in Tripura, the leadership knew that there were no takers for the TMC, yet some of our top bosses (Abhishek Banerjee) insisted that we must stick on. Look at the result today, we have performed worse than NOTA,” the TMC functionary said.
The TMC had stationed its former minister Rajib Banerjee in Tripura for the last one-and-a-half years to look after the elections in the hill state. It also appointed former Congress leader Sushmita Dev as the party’s in-charge of Tripura. Dev was also given a Rajya Sabha ticket from the TMC, after she joined the party in 2021. Sources said that Dev was one of the potential chief ministerial candidates of the party for Tripura. Abhishek Banerjee toured the state multiple times; however, ground reports for long suggested that the TMC was not being able to get the traction it needed in Tripura.
In the Assembly election results declared on Thursday, the TMC, which went to Tripura with all guns blazing, faced a massive defeat. The TMC could get just 0.88% of the total vote share in Tripura, while the NOTA (None of The Above) choice was able to secure 1.36% of the total vote share. The TMC was unable to win even a single seat in Tripura, where it contested 28 of the total 60 Assembly seats.
Even in Meghalaya, where the TMC was hoping to become the “kingmaker”, it was not able to get a favourable result. In fact, the TMC’s show at the hustings was poorer than its tally in 2018. The TMC won five out of the total 60 seats in the Meghalaya Assembly.
It is pertinent to mention here that following the 2021 Assembly election results in Bengal, where it won for the third consecutive time, the TMC poached Meghalaya’s former Congress Chief Minister Mukul Sangma, along with 12 other Congress MLAs, became the largest opposition party in the state. But a year-and-a-half later, it was unable to retain even 50% of its MLAs it got in 2021 from the Congress. Even in Goa, the TMC faced a massive electoral drubbing last year, where it contested for the first time. The party was unable to win a single seat from the coastal state and was able to get just 5.2% of the total votes polled.
This section of TMC leaders called all this an “ambitious misadventure” which is leading to the party’s declining base in its home state of West Bengal.
“The TMC is on a sticky wicket in Bengal, there is massive negative publicity about the party, both in the regional and national media; there is mistrust about the party among the people of Bengal, there are issues of corruption, infighting, upcoming panchayat elections, there was a by-election in the state. But no, the party had to contest two states because it wants to establish itself as a national party. Such ambitious misadventures could cost the party even in its home state,” warned a senior TMC leader.
In the recent byelection held in the Sagardighi Assembly constituency, the TMC lost the seat to the Congress. The seat was for long held by TMC veteran Subrata Saha. Interestingly, this seat has a 63% minority population, which helped the TMC retain it for almost 15 years, but this time around, Congress’ Bayron Biswas won, as he contested under an alliance of the CPM and Congress.
This particular result has irked many TMC leaders, who have started to question the decisions taken by the party and its leadership.
“When your own house is on fire, you don’t go to douse the fire in your neighbourhood. The Sagardighi result is a learning point for the TMC; it should be an eyeopener that its minority vote bank is getting eroded. The minorities for long have been unhappy with the TMC, but the party has taken them for granted. This could get replicated across the state, if measures are not taken now,” the senior TMC leader quoted here said.