Kolkata: Trinamool Congress (TMC), which is a new political player in Tripura, will fight the February 16 election alone.
Senior TMC leaders on Friday held its strategy meeting in Kolkata and decided not to forge pre-poll alliance with any political party in Tripura.
Abhishek Banerjee, national general secretary of TMC chaired the meeting, which was attended by with Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev, TMC’s Tripura state president Pijush Kanti Biswas and state in-charge Rajib Banerjee.
Sources told Northeast News that the meeting lasted for over two hours and Abhishek Banerjee took note of the party’s prospect in all the 60 seats.
“It has been finalized that we are going to fight the election without any pre-poll alliance,” Sushmita Dev said, adding that in 2018 BJP got all non-Left votes, and this time TMC is the only alternative.
Sushmita Dev said track record of Congress-CPI (M) in the past has never been good. “TMC is the new alternative in Tripura, and we also have a track record of defeating BJP,” she said.
The Left Front and Congress will be contesting the elections jointly in Tripura. Though the Left Front-Congress alliance has given out a call for secular democratic parties to come together, it is against the inclusion of TMC.
TMC’s Tripura in-charge Rajib Banerjee said the party has received 120 applications for 60 seats. “We are going to select the best candidates in all the 60 constituencies,” he said.
Abhishek Banerjee is likely to visit Tripura in the last week of January to launch a massice campaign, while TMC chief Mamata Banerjee will be there in the final lap of campaigning.
