After bagging Bengal, it would be an uphill task for TMC to triumph Tripura

Even as Mamata Banerjee set out on her 'Mission Hope-2024', camping in the national capital, having tete-a-tete with leaders of various political parties, her poll managers and poll strategists are out on 'Mission Tripura'.

Tripura can be the next port of call for the third time Bengal Chief Minister and more so with the small and picturesque north-eastern state going to polls early next year. After retaining Bengal for the third time, Mamata started focusing on Tripura, thanks to its geographical proximity to Bengal and also due to the fact that Bengali is the mostly spoken language in that state too. During her first stint as the Bengal Chief Minister also Mamata had made attempts to make her footprints in Tripura. But those were to no avail as Mukul Roy, who had been architecting Trinamul's entry into that state, left TMC midway and joined BJP. Roy, incidentally, has come back to the TMC's fold.

This time round, Agartala, Biplab Deb government's seat of power, has already turned out to be a political hotbed. A fairly large contingent from Prashant Kishor-owned I-Pac is already under house arrest of the sort, in an Agartala hotel and the Tripura unit of the TMC has already hit the street protesting such a move by the state government. The matter did not end there.

Mamata sent a team comprising state Law Minister Malay Ghatak, state Education Minister Bratya Basu and former CPIM MP (who is now a TMC leader) Ritobroto Banerjee to escalate matters further. And this group held a press conference at the Agartala Press Club allegedly without any permission from the club authorities.

The club authorities are already up in arms against the TMC leadership on ground of holding the meeting forcefully without any prior permission and also for flouting the Covid protocol. So much so that the Agartala Press Club secretary Pranab Sarkar had to come out in the open airing their discontentment over the TMC gestures. The two warring camps are not willing to give in an inch without a fight. Mamata's heir apparent (Mamata Banerjee's nephew) and party MP Abhishek Banerjee is heading for Agartala on Friday to take the fights forward. Political tensions are understandably expected to aggravate after Abhishek Banerjee's visit to the neighbouring state.

Mind you that the BJP had been merely a signboard political outfit before the last state Legislative Assembly polls. On the eve of the last polls, a number of former Congress, TMC and CPIM leaders had switched over camps and helped the BJP win the state. TMC leadership is eyeing them and trying to woo them back. Some of them have also evinced willingness to rally behind Mamata Banerjee.

While this may be a relieving and pleasant information for the Bengal Chief Minister, she should not forget that the whole campaign of "Bengal wants her prodigal daughter" and the debates over insider Vs outsider initiated before the Bengal polls might now be used again her in Tripura. How she handles that remains to be seen.