NEW DELHI: Despite high-decibel campaigning by the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC), the ruling BJP made a clean sweep in the Tripura urban local bodies (ULBs) elections, the results of which were announced on Sunday.
Elections were held for 20 ULBs, including the Agartala Municipal Corporation, which comprises 51 wards, 13 municipal councils and six nagar panchayats.
Out of the 334 ULB seats, the BJP won 329 (98.5%) seats, the CPI(M) managed to secure 3, while the TMC and the Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA) won 1 seat each.
The BJP won uncontested in 112 seats, spread over 4 municipal councils and two nagar panchayats.
Elections were held in 222 seats on November 25.
The BJP fielded candidates in all 222 seats while the TMC contested in 120 seats, CPI(M) in 197, Congress in 92, CPI in 6, Revolutionary Socialist Party in 2, All India Forward Bloc in 3, others in 10, and independents in 21 seats.
BJP president JP Nadda credited the party victory in the Tripura municipal elections to the “double engine governments” and attacked the opposition parties. In a series of tweets, he said: “The victory of BJP in local bodies is a symbol of the people’s faith in the policies and public welfare schemes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and in the commitment of the double engine governments to the development of the state… It is the victory of nationalist forces and progressive thinking. The people of the state have put their stamp on the politics of development by rejecting the disruptive forces who are doing politics of violence, controversy and those who insult Tripura.”

Jolt to TMC
After its landslide victory in the West Bengal assembly election held earlier this year, the TMC started spreading its wings in the country. It tried to expand its base in the Northeast, particularly in Tripura and Assam, besides Goa.
Former Lok Sabha MP from Silchar in Assam and former chief of Congress’s national women’s wing Sushmita Dev joined the TMC in August. Her father Santosh Mohan Dev was a seven-term Lok Sabha MP. Out of these terms, he had won twice from Tripura West.
TMC nominated Sushmita Dev to Rajya Sabha. The party became active in Tripura believing that it would get a “readymade platform” in the state. It thought the ruling BJP had not lived up to its promises and the Left Front had weakened with time while the Congress did not even have a committee for all the booths in the hilly state.
Besides Sushmita Dev, TMC general secretary and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee and party Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien became active in Tripura.
The party also activated political strategist Prashant Kishor-led Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) in the state to conduct extensive surveys. A team of I-PAC, which had gone to the state to conduct the surveys, was detained by the Tripura Police for alleged violation of Covid-19 protocols.
The TMC appeared to be posing a serious challenge to the BJP in the state. Tensions had risen after violent incidents took place in the run-up to the ULB elections.
The TMC alleged that several people suffered injuries after an attack on the residence of its Tripura unit’s steering committee chief Subal Bhowmik in Bhagaban Thakur Chowmuni area of Agartala on November 21.
The TMC MPs sat on a dharna on November 22 in the national capital against the arrest of Trinamool Youth Congress chief Saayoni Ghosh by Tripura Police. Ghosh was arrested for allegedly causing a ruckus at a public meeting where Tripura CM Biplab Kumar Deb was present.
The TMC MPs also met home minister Amit Shah in Delhi over the issue.
The results have come as a dampener for the TMC. It is the first jolt to Banerjee after her party’s landslide victory in West Bengal. It is a setback for her prime ministerial ambitions and for TMC’s target to expand its footprints outside West Bengal.
The TMC will have to work harder to give a tough fight to the BJP in the Goa assembly election that are scheduled to be held in early 2022, and the 2023 Tripura assembly election.
In a tweet, BJP leader in-charge of party’s information and technology department Amit Malviya said: “TMC’s win in Bengal stood diminished after Mamata Banerjee lost her own election against BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari from Nandigram. Her political capital has eroded further by the drubbing TMC has got in Tripura, a contest her party made so much song and dance about. Goa is next.”

The Tripura ULB election results come just a day ahead of the Winter Session of Parliament, which commences on Monday. A victory in the northeastern state would have given a boost to TMC’s morale in both houses of Parliament. A defeat is surely to dampen its spirit.
Contrary to what the TMC felt, the Left still remains stronger than it. The Left has still not ceded total space though the Congress stands decimated in the northeastern state.
Shot in the arm for ruling BJP
The TMC had run a strong campaign against the BJP not just on the ground but also on social media.
It had sought to discredit the Biplab Deb-led government on all parameters of governance. It had alleged that the “double engine government of the BJP” had failed to fulfil the promises made ahead of the 2018 assembly election.
The BJP’s victory, that too by an overwhelming majority, will work as a booster dose for the saffron party after the defeat in West Bengal in May this year.
The party may not need to worry much for the 2023 Tripura assembly election.
The result also brings personal respite for CM Biplab Deb who was under intense attack not just by the opposition but also by detractors within his own party.
His position is not just safe but it also has strengthened.