Last Updated: January 20, 2023, 22:11 IST
Kolkata [Calcutta], India
TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee chaired the meeting with MP Sushmita Dev, the party’s Tripura President Pijush Kanti Biswas and State In-charge Rajib Banerjee. (Photo: Twitter / @sradvbiswas)
TMC’s Tripura in-charge Rajib Banerjee said, “We have 120 application for 60 seats, the party’s high command has been briefed. Things will be finalised very soon”
Parties are gearing up ahead of the Tripura Assembly elections, set to take place on February 16. The All India Trinamool Congress (TMC), which is a new player in the north-eastern state, held its strategy meeting in Kolkata on Friday.
While the Left Front and Congress will be contesting the elections jointly, the TMC has decided to fight it alone.
TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee chaired the meeting with MP Sushmita Dev, the party’s Tripura President Pijush Kanti Biswas and State In-charge Rajib Banerjee.
The meeting lasted for over two hours and seat to seat discussion took place, sources told CNN-News18.
“We will contest ourselves, last time BJP got all non-Left votes there, therefore this time we are the only alternative,” Sushmita Dev told News18. “Left-Congress themselves have said that it’s seat sharing and not an alliance and their track record of alliances in the past has not been good. Competitively, TMC is the new alternative and we have a track record of defeating BJP,” she said.
Though the Left Front-Congress alliance has given out a call for secular democratic parties to come together to oust the BJP, CPI(M) Secretary Jitendra Choudhury told News18 that they don’t want TMC in it.
TMC is not interested in an alliance with the Left and the Congress as well, sources said. However, they will take time on their strategies with indigenous parties. They may take certain strategic decisions so that BJP is hit in every aspect, as per sources
TMC’s Tripura in-charge Rajib Banerjee said, “We have 120 application for 60 seats, everything has been briefed to the party high command. Now things will be finalised very soon.”
Party insiders said that Abhishek Banerjee is likely to visit Tripura in the last week of January, while West Bengal CM and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee will be there in the final lap of campaigning.
Read all the Latest Politics News here
