Will TMC's mission smaller States help party spread its wings?

'Small is beautiful' seems to be the new mantra among the Trinamool Congress think-tank. After (or simultaneously with) Tripura, TMC apparatchiks are eyeing another smaller State- Goa. The third-time West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee is heading to the western coastal State. This will be her maiden political visit to Goa beginning on Thursday. Her party is already gearing up to mark its footprint in that State. The State legislative Assembly polls in Goa is slated for February, 2022, which is just few months away. The TMC has already announced its decision to contest the Assembly elections in Goa.

Significantly, former Union Minister Babul Supriyo, who has recently switched camps to TMC, along with party MPs - Mahua Moitra and Saugata Roy, have already arrived in Goa ahead of West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC head Mamata Banerjee's visit to the State. The singer-turned politician already expressed confidence that his new party will do "very well" in the Goa Assembly elections due early next year.

Significantly, as of now, the TMC has got two sitting legislators in the Goa legislative Assembly - Congress's Luizinho Falerio, who recently joined the party and was appointed vice-president, and independent MLA Prasad Goankar, who has announced support for the TMC and is expected to join the party close to polls. The Congress, which is the lead opposition party here, has only four legislators. Mamata Banerjee's party is also sending out fillers and initiated dialogues with other independent legislators and smaller parties to come into the TMC fold. More leaders are expected to join the party during Banerjee's visit. Political grapevines had it that famed personalities from other walks of life including musician Lucky Ali, social activists Nafisa Ali, among others, may also join the party.

Interestingly, the ruling party in West Bengal also has one Rajya Sabha seat vacant, following the resignation of its sitting MP Arpita Ghosh. The party may utilise this vacant seat to lure in and accommodate new TMC entrants from Goa.

Political analysts think it might well be the right strategy for the TMC, perceived to be the most serious and strongest challenger to Modi-Shah juggernaut, nationally, to look towards the smaller States to spread its wings. These are like low hanging fruits. The party can wrest a State, now ruled by the BJP, by just wooing in few leaders from the other camp, without taking up the strains of building orginalisational machinery across that State. It would also paying BJP back in their own coin. BJP, in the past, had adopted the same strategy by fuelling defection in the opposition camp.

TMC's mission smaller States coincided with the joining of two senior Congress leaders from UP into the party. Laliteshpati Tripathi, former vice president of UP Congress and former MLA from Manihan Assembly seat in Uttar Pradesh's Mirzapur district and another senior Congress leader from the State. Tripathi on Monday deserted their erstwhile party and joined TMC. Mind you that Lalitesh is the great-grandson of former UP chief minister Kamlapati Tripathi and Tripathis are considered influential in the Mirzapur-Varanasi region. Mamata has already lined up her plans to visit Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency, post-Chhatpuja to spread party's wings there. It's so far so good for TMC, for sure.