Trinamool Is Looking At A Steep Stumble In The Hill State A Year After Its Backdoor Entry Into Meghalaya
By orchestrating the defection of a dozen Congress members into the party exactly one year ago, the Trinamool Congress achieved a spectacular backdoor entry into Meghalaya.
Inducting the “dirty dozen” from the Congress into its ranks was a real coup for the provincial party of Bengal, which had no supporters in the hill state.
Mukul Sangma, the former chief minister, and other top Congress legislators were Trinamool’s prize grab. Given that they made up more than two-thirds of the 17-member Congress Legislature Party, the defectors were exempt from the anti-defection rule.
However, the Trinamool is seeing defections a year after making its debut in Meghalaya. Himalaya Muktan Shangpliang, its senior lawmaker, said earlier this week that he was leaving the party and joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The most visible representative of Trinamool in the Khasi & Jaintia Hills was Shangpliang, a former IAS officer and MLA from Mawsynram (the wettest place on earth), who expressed extreme dissatisfaction with the party’s leadership.
Additionally, a few of the MLAs who joined Trinamool after Mukul Sangma do plan to sever their ties to the Bengal party.
Many of the workers and lower-level officials who joined Mamata Banerjee’s party after leaving the Congress last year and at the beginning of this year are disenchanted and have either already left the party or are about to do so.
The strong popular opinion that the party (Trinamool) is a party with a base in Bengal is the main cause of the constant stream of departures from Trinamool in Meghalaya.
Marbaniang claimed that Charles Pynrope, a local (Nongthymmai) lawmaker who switched parties to the Trinamool from the Congress a year ago, is also uneasy in the “party of Bengalis.”
The local MLA Shitlang Pale, who switched from the Congress to the Trinamool last year, is only too aware, according to Suchiang, who joined the BJP last month, of the opposition to the Trinamool in the community.
In the five districts of the Garo Hills, which send 24 MLAs to the 60-member state legislative assembly, the Trinamool performs marginally better.
These 24 MLAs include eight Trinamool members who left Congress, 13 members of the National People’s Party, one member of the Nationalist Congress Party, and two Independents. The National People’s Party is led by the current chief minister, Conrad Sangma.
Two of the 13 MLAs in the National People’s Party (NPP), which is in power, joined the BJP this week.
A close relative of Jimmy Sangma, one of the 12 MLAs who switched from the Congress to the Trinamool last year, Dikkanchi M. Sangma, told Swarajya that although there is less hostility toward the ‘outsider’ Trinamool in the Garo Hills, it is still seen as an opportunistic party with no roots in Meghalaya.
E S Thangkhiew, a political analyst and commentator, concurs with Shira.
Political pundits predict that as elections get closer, Trinamool’s ranks would continue to erode. They claim that the Trinamool can win five seats in the best-case scenario.
However, there is no assurance that MLAs who win on Trinamool tickets will stick with the group.
In the 2012 Manipur Assembly elections, the Trinamool won seven seats, however, all seven MLAs quickly joined other coalitions. In the 2017 Assembly elections, it only garnered one seat, but that one MLA also defected from the party.
In Manipur’s elections last year, the Trinamool was completely defeated and received no votes.
Analysts predict that scenario will play out in Meghalaya as well because the Trinamool has relied on manipulating defections from other parties rather than investing political capital in both states’ organic growth.
Thus, the Trinamool is destined to experience yet another setback in its much-touted plans to grow beyond Bengal. Mamata Banerjee appears destined to experience bitter disappointment in Meghalaya as well after Goa and Tripura.
News Mania Desk
