The Trinamool Congress (TMC), a party with ambitions to play a significant role in national politics until even a year ago, is currently in a precarious position. Its expansion strategies are in ruins, with failures to enter states like Goa and Tripura.
The Election Commission (EC), which had granted the Mamata Banerjee-led party the status of a national party in 2016, has now revoked it a year before Lok Sabha elections, underscoring the party’s predicament.
Party members are in dismay
Under the condition of anonymity, a top TMC official stated that despite having a strong active role against the BJP in the 2021 elections, the party failed to retain its status due to its own shortcomings. Various scams by ministers and the unsupportive behavior of party members like Yashwant Sinha and Shatrughan Sinha have caused huge damage to the party’s image. He acknowledged the party’s failure to have an impact in Tripura and Goa despite investing crores of rupees.
The TMC lost its position as a state party in Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, but it retained that status in West Bengal and Tripura and was granted state party status in Meghalaya based on this year’s elections.
Why did TMC fail, according to EC?
A national party must receive at least 6% of the vote in four or more states in the most recent Lok Sabha or Assembly elections and have at least four MPs, or at least 2% of the seats in the Lok Sabha, with candidates elected from at least three states, as stated in Paragraph 6B of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.
According to the EC’s review, the TMC received 0.4% and 43.28% of the vote in Tripura and West Bengal, respectively, despite not running in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Arunachal Pradesh or Manipur. The party received 44.91% of the vote in West Bengal, 1.41% in Manipur, and 0.3% in Tripura during the Assembly elections from 2016 to 2018. The party did not run in Manipur (2022). While the most recent polls showed it received 48.02 percent of the vote in West Bengal (2021).
Legal avenues for contesting the EC ruling are being investigated, according to party leaders. “Since we disagree with the EC’s ruling, we are looking at our legal options. It was not a fair judgement. Jaiprakash Majumdar, state vice president of the TMC, stated, “We will ask the Election Commission to issue a statement that all those awarded national status fit all the established requirements.
The public did not accept them-Opposition
Rivals of the TMC poked fun at it in the meantime regarding the EC’s decision. When asked about the election body’s decision to strip the TMC, Communist Party of India (CPI), and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) of their national party status, Union Minister Anurag Thakur told reporters in Bulandshahr, “Those who did not get votes, who did not get acceptance by the public, and had continuously been on the decline, the Election Commission has given its decision on them as per the rules.”
The usage of ‘All India’ in the TMC’s name should not be permitted by the EC. They will become nothing but a party without a symbol in the upcoming years. According to BJP national vice president Dilip Ghosh, no one can become a national party by using force or spending money.
Adhir Chowdhury, head of the state Congress, claimed that the TMC’s hopes of challenging the grand old party on the national stage had been dashed. “The Congress suffered as the TMC grew in West Bengal. It then fantasized about stealing Congress leaders in order to broaden its support outside of Bengal. He claimed that the TMC is a spent force at the national level since it no longer has the stature of a national party.
Meanwhile, Sujan Chakraborty, the head of the CPI (M), questioned, “How did the TMC gain national party status? They are unique to West Bengal; therefore, that raises a lot of questions.
