Mamata to give pep talks to TMC workers of Meghalaya ahead of polls

In order to encourage the Trinamool Congress activists of Meghalaya ahead of the assembly election early next year party supremo Mamata Banerjee will address a workers convention here on TuesdayThe TMC is now the northeastern states main opposition party in its 60member assembly by virtue of the defection of 12 of the 17 Congress MLAs including former chief minister Mukul Sangma in November last yearHowever one of the 12 resigned from the assembly and also from the party last month reducing the TMCs strength in the House to 11Besides Tripura and Assam Meghalaya is one of the northeastern states where the TMC is trying to make inroads The party had also contested the assembly election in Manipur in 2012While Meghalaya is being governed by a coalition of NPP BJP and others the saffron partyheaded groupings are ruling Assam and TripuraAlso read TMC delegation meets chief election commissioner over harassment of Saket GokhaleDuring her threeday visit to Meghalaya Banerjee will address a TMC workers convention at the State Central Library in Shillong on Tuesday She will also participate in preChristmas celebrations hereAccompanied by TMC national general secretary and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee she reached the state capital on MondayAbhishek Banerjee had visited Meghalaya twice this year During his last visit he had inaugurated a TMC party office in the Garo Hills region and met church leaders besides addressing a public meeting in western MeghalayaInterestingly the ruling NPP president and Chief Minister Conrad Sangmas father is the late PA Sangma the former Lok Sabha Speaker who had merged his faction of the NCP with the TMC in 2004Mamata Banerjees visit to Meghalaya came days after the state government filed a criminal defamation suit against TMC national spokesperson Saket Gokhale for making claims that a stateowned tourism firm misappropriated funds worth over Rs 630 croreThe TMC is also trying to make its presence felt in Tripura and AssamSeveral politicians have joined the TMC in Tripura in recent times The party had bagged over 20 per cent votes in the statewide civic polls there but performed poorly in the assembly byelectionsOut of the seven Congress MLAs six had switched over to the TMC in 2016 but all of them joined the BJP the next year The ruling CPIM was defeated by a BJPled coalition in 2018 Now the Congress has been trying to gain ground in Tripura where the assembly election will also be held next yearIn Assam the TMC inducted former Congress heavyweights Sushmita Dev and Ripun Bora into the party with the former being made a Rajya Sabha member from West BengalBanerjee who frequently visited the state to offer prayers at the Kamakhya Temple has been vocal on several occasions on issues related to the Bengalispeaking population in the Barak ValleyThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever