Party time for Mamata's TMC in states where Congress is jittery
India Today
The TMC is trying to present Mamata Banerjee as a pan-India leader and itself as a party with a national presence and not merely a Bengal force. A switchover by 13 of 17 MLAs in Meghalaya from the Congress to the TMC is the latest case.
In September, when former Goa Chief Minister Luizinho Faleiro, an MLA, switched from the Congress to the Trinamool Congress, this is what he said: “I am a Congressman of 40 years. I will continue to be a Congressman of the Congress family. Among all four Congresses, it is Mamata who has given a tough fight to Modi and their juggernaut.”
He was referring to how “the Congress is now fragmented between Sharad Pawar’s Congress, Trinamool Congress and YSR Congress” and how West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee emerged on the national scene after drubbing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the assembly election.
