The Tripura twists!

Dreams of the Trinamool party and its supremo, Mamata Banerjee, received a jolt when the BJP routed them in the civic polls with a total sweep. The Left party, led by its incorruptible leader Manik Sarkar, too drew a virtual blank. Congress and others lost all seats. The silver lining is TMC emerging as the runner-up with 20.2% votes polled. Winners are remembered; the runners’ ups are long forgotten!

I have been consistently writing, the huge mandate for Didi and TMC is not to send her packing to Delhi but to streamline the economy of Bengal. Her advisor and poll strategist seems a man in a hurry and has his vested interest. He has reportedly sought membership in the Congress party, declined and has vowed to decimate it. The strategist forgets that he may have played into the hands of the BJP.

By poaching Congress members and inducting them into their party, the TMC has unwittingly helped the BJP gain a bigger margin. For the BJP, the main political rival is the only other National party, the Indian National Congress. The Trinamool is insignificant despite the rabblerousing by a few of the party leaders.

If BJP had lost in Bengal, the poll management was handled by people who never knew Bengal’s ethos. They were outsiders, thrust on the State Unit by Delhi. They were plain ignorant or arrogant of their national stature. BJP was also filled with dissenters from the TMC. The TMC, too, is repeating the same mistake by filling her party with politicians from other parties. Instead of sending responsible and mature leaders from their party to Tripura, they sent loudmouths and new party entrants. They thought by disturbing the peace or causing a law-and-order situation, they could gain the support of the people. The idea was fallacious from the beginning.

Today, TMC is the face of Bengal. Instead of projecting a fighter cock image, it must try to regain a degree of respectability among Indians from other states. The pre-and-post-poll strategies adopted in Bengal cannot work in the other states, as it has failed in Tripura and as it will fail in Goa.

The Congress party is likely to move the court against the TMC for admitting the former CM and 11 MLAs from Meghalaya into their fold. What if Congress appoints its member Abhishek Manu Singhvi to appear in the case? Singhvi is also a member of the Rajya Sabha nominated by the Trinamool Congress. Trinamool has wasted its RS nominations on outsiders, causing disgruntlement in the party. Lateral admissions of apolitical people also are a cause of heartburn for many longtime loyalists in the party.

There seems no other face, other than the CM’s, for any job and errand. Her planned visit to Mumbai for investment is a lowly job for the expensive retired babus, who enjoy extended plum postings at the taxpayer’s cost. The fact is that TMC may have no credible face outside West Bengal. How long will the party depend on the overworked and ageing CM, despite her youthful spirit?

Tripura must be a warning bell for the course correction of Trinamool!  Any further poll losses will damage the prospects of Didi’s dreams of 2024 PM of India!

Sampath Kumar

Intrépide Voix