Led by West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Trinamool Congress is looking to expand into other states. (File)
The "Bengal model of governance" will be Trinamool Congress's (TMC) pitch in Tripura elections due next year as Mamata Banerjee's party seeks to expand its base outside West Bengal. The party set up its state headquarters at Agartala on Monday, two and a half months after it announced a 132-member state committee.
While it has already set up headquarters in at least two other north-eastern states, Assam and Meghalaya, the TMC's ambition to unseat the BJP in Tripura is also tied to linguistics. More than 60 per cent of Tripura's people speak Bengali, followed by Kokborok or Tripuri with 25 per cent, according to the latest census (2011).
"Tripura is our next goal. We are following that. We will implement the Bengal model of governance in the state and continue to oust BJP from governance," the party's state in-charge Rajib Banerjee said, quoting TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
"All the social sector schemes launched by the Bengal government will be implemented in Tripura once the TMC came to power," he said. Elections are due in March next year.
The party's Tripura unit President, Subal Bhowmik, said the people are "waiting for that day". "Even last night, the ruling party (BJP) tried to create obstructions in the inauguration of our party office," he alleged. "But the people of Tripura are with us and they want Mamata Banerjee's leadership to free Tripura of the oppressive BJP regime."
"Democracy is being muzzled in Tripura," TMC Rajya Sabha member Sushmita Dev alleged. "In a democratic country, it took a political party one year to establish its office in another state. This was not due to the lack of our efforts but other reasons."
"We want to assure all sections of people that we will stand by their side and fight for them. We will fight the 2023 assembly elections not through bullets or violence, but through democracy," she added.