Municipality polls vote share in Tripura makes Trinamool Congress confident for 2023 battle

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Credit: PTI Photo

Trinamool Congress managed to win only one out of 334 seats in 14 municipal bodies in Tripura.

But the boost it got in vote share on Sunday made the Mamta Banerjee-led party confident about achieving its target to wrest power from BJP in the Assembly elections in 2023.

In the results of civic body polls announced on Sunday, TMC surpassed Congress in vote share, compared to the votes they got in the Assembly elections in 2018 and the Lok Sabha polls in 2019. Trinamool's vote share increased to 16.39% against 0.3% in 2018 and 0.4% in 2019 elections. Congress' vote share plummeted to 2.07% on Sunday from 25.34% in 2019.

Also Read | Ruling BJP sweeps Tripura civic polls, wins all AMC seats

The ruling BJP, which swept the civic body polls by winning in all 14 Municipal bodies increased its vote share to 59.01% from 43.59% in 2018 and 49.03% in 2019. The CPI (M), which ruled the state for 25 years before BJP formed its first government in 2018, got 18.13% votes against 44.35% in 2018. The party's vote share in 2019 stood at 17.31%.

AITC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee tweeted saying, “It was exceptional for a party beginning with negligible presence to successfully contest municipal elections and emerge as the principal opposition in the state. This is despite the fact that we commenced our activities barely three months ago and BJP Tripura left no stone unturned to butcher democracy in Tripura.”

Soon after Bengal's victory in May, Abhishek announced that wresting power from BJP in Tripura in 2023 was the biggest target for TMC.

Also Read | TMC's Tripura civic poll claims are hollow, results prove faith in BJP: Dilip Ghosh

The party said its vote share was over 20% in Agartala Municipal Corporation, Ambassa Municipality and Teliamura Municipal Council.

BJP said the result of the municipality elections proved people in Tripura were in favour of good governance practices of CM Biplab Kumar Deb government.

"BJP, when it contested the previous municipal elections, had a vote share of 14.1% in Agartala. AITC, meanwhile, within 72 days of initiating its campaign, has managed to win nearly 20% of the votes, leading the path for AITC to reach out to the people of Tripura, to bring credible change by forming a government in 2023," TMC said in a statement.

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