KOLKATA: The Trinamool Congress will emerge the main anti-BJP political force in national politics, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee said in the party’s working committee meeting on Monday. She directed the party MPs to act accordingly during the winter session of Parliament.
“The thumping majority of the TMC in the recent Assembly polls showed clearly that no one can challenge the BJP other than our party. Many speakers in the meeting echoed the same in their speeches,” said Derek O’Brien, national spokesperson of TMC. He said the next working committee meeting would be held in Delhi.
The TMC, which recently enrolled many leaders from other parties, especially the Congress, in Goa, Tripura, Meghalaya and Haryana, plans to expand its footprint outside Bengal ahead of the 2024 LS polls.
“We hope the defection from other parties will send a negative message to the vote-bank of the affected political outfits but will work in favour of the TMC. As a result, in the states where the Congress was main opponent of the BJP, our party will get elevated to the saffron camp’s main contender,” said a TMC leader, adding that there would be more defections in the coming days.
On Monday, the TMC skipped the meeting of opposition parties convened by the Congress, saying the grand old party has miserably failed to contest the BJP in recent elections.
During her three-day visit to Mumbai starting Tuesday, Mamata will meet NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and her Maharashtra counterpart Uddhav Thackeray.
Mamata will also be on a three-day visit to Mumbai from November 30, during which he is scheduled to meet NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and her Maharashtra counterpart Uddhav Thackeray.
She is also expected to meet industrialists in Mumbai on December 1 and invite them to Bengal Global Business Summit, to be held in April next year.
"Mamata Banerjee will be on three-day visit to Mumbai from tomorrow. She will hold meetings with NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. The CM also aims to attract investments to the state," a senior TMC leader said.
Banerjee had last week visited Delhi and met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to press for various demands of the state.
She, however, did not pay a visit to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, given the changed equation between the TMC and the grand old party.
(With PTI Inputs)