TMC: Going National
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-11-30 07:01:45
About the Author
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) held the meeting of the working committee of the party on Monday in Kolkata. The meeting assumed significance as the party is trying to soar high and get out of its 'Bengal-centric' image and expand its footprint. To this end, the party invited many leaders who have joined the party in the last few months as special invitees to the meeting.
Former Union finance minister Yashwant Sinha, Bihar leader Pavan Varma, Haryana leader Asoke Tanwar, Meghalaya leaders Mukul Sangma and Charles Pyngrope and tennis star Leander Paes were the special invitees who attended Monday's meeting. It was also reported that Mamata Banerjee met the Meghalaya leaders separately before the meeting started.
The party also decided to make the working committee fully representative as per its pan-India aspirations and will soon induct Yashwant Sinha as a member. It also decided to hold the next meeting of the working committee in Delhi.
After its spectacular victory in Bengal, acquisition of many leaders from other parties and a creditable performance in Tripura, the TMC is becoming more aggressive in trying to become the major opposition force. The party said after the meeting that Mamata Banerjee is the "strongest and most credible and experienced" leader and she is the fittest to take on the BJP.
It is now clear that even as the Congress wants to leverage its all-India infrastructure, its governments in several states and its presence as a sizeable opposition in other state assemblies to pitchfork Rahul Gandhi as the face of a united opposition ahead of the 2024 general elections, the TMC is in no mood to oblige. It has seriously started the process of expanding its footprint and projecting Mamata Banerjee as the best leader to lead the opposition.
The greatest advantage that the TMC has is that being a regional party itself, it can convince other regional parties to come on board as they will not feel threatened about the TMC poaching on their turfs. All regional parties view the Congress with suspicion as they contest against it in state elections. But with the TMC, that would not be the case. It remains to be seen how far the TMC can take this line and how well it can arrange things to have a united opposition (most probably minus the Congress) fighting the BJP under the leadership of the redoubtable Mamata Banerjee.
