TMC turns 24 eyes Delhi

Mumbai: Twenty-four years after Mamata Banerjee formed the Trinamool Congress on January 1, 1998 to unseat the Left Front from power in West Bengal, her party has transcended the geographical boundaries of the eastern state and now attempts to expand its footprint across the country to pose a direct challenge to the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

With the Congress in shambles, the TMC, which Banerjee floated after quitting the Congress, is attempting to grab that space by challenging the grand old party, branding it as “war-weary” and accusing it of failing to put up a fight against the BJP.

At the same time, the party is positioning itself as the “real Congress” and the only outfit to oppose the saffron camp tooth and nail, after its landslide victory in this year’s assembly elections in West Bengal despite the BJP’s massive campaign to unseat her from power.

In a bid to project West Bengal Chief Minister as the main opposition face against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the TMC is on a rebranding overdrive, inducting people from diverse geographies and political backgrounds, mooting to change the party’s constitution, and its name for a pan-India appeal before it takes a plunge into a massive nationwide campaign for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Banerjee’s clarion call for opposition unity to remove the BJP from power has not stopped her from expanding her centre-left party in various states. In the last six months, her party has opened units in Goa, Haryana, Tripura and Meghalaya.

The party, which hardly had any meaningful existence in Meghalaya, has emerged as the main opposition party in the northeastern state after 12 of the 17 Congress MLAs led by former chief minister Mukul Sangma joined the TMC. In neighbouring Tripura, the party aims to pose a challenge to the ruling BJP, although the saffron party swept the recently held civic polls in the state.

As part of its national expansion strategy, the TMC has inducted Congress leader from Bihar and former BJP MP Kirti Azad, former JD(U) MP Pawan Verma, former Congress Haryana chief Ashok Tanwar, Delhi-based RTI activist Saket Gokhale, former Mahila Congress chief Sushmita Dev, former Goa chief minister Luizinho Falerio, tennis icon Leander Paes, former Union minister Babul Supriyo among many others. —(PTI)