"If Bengal can, why can't Tripura?"--with this message, Trinamool Congress on Monday exuded confidence about wresting power from BJP in Tripura in the Assembly elections slated in 2023 and forming its government.
"After winning the battle in Bengal against the undemocratic means adopted by BJP, Trinamool Congress has taken the challenge of removing BJP from Tripura in 2023. We will take governance to each door like our leader Mamata Banerjee has done in Bengal. Let BJP accept the challenge and stop us from winning the hearts of the people in Tripura," TMC national general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee told reporters at Agartala.
Abhishek, a Lok Sabha member from Bengal, is visiting Tripura as part of TMC's plan to build up the party's organisational base in the run up to the Assembly elections in 2023.
After landing at Agartala, he visited the historic Tripurasundari temple at Udaipur, situated about 55-km away.
The TMC leader uploaded a video on Twitter that showed a crowd, some holding BJP flags, attacked his car with bamboo poles. "They attacked me with bamboo poles, iron rods and even injured my three PSOs. BJP government and Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb has reduced democracy to such a low. They adopted the same strategy in Bengal and they faiked. From today the game for BJP and Mr. Deb has ended and the game for Trinamool and people of Tripura has begun," he said.
"The attack on me, our workers and detention of 23 staffs of IPAC shows how scared and insecured BJP has become about TMC in Tripura too," the TMC leader further said adding that he would visit the state again after two weeks to form the party's new state unit and the booth level bases to prepare for the 2023 polls.
Banerjee also appealed to the CPM and all anti-BJP parties to join hands with TMC for a united fight against BJP, which formed its first government in 2018 defeating CPM government.
"What happened to BJP's promise of jobs to 50, 000 youths? What did they do for the 10,000 teachers who lost their jobs? Today unemployment rate is very high, crime against women is rising and incidents of violence against the tribals, minorities and those in lower strata of society in Tripura is increasing," he said.