Mamata Banerjee's TMC to take on EC on legal front over removal of national party status
Ahead 2024 General Election, the Election Commission gave a big jolt to Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress by removing its national party tag. The timing of the action is politically crucial as Banerjee has been working to increase footprint of her party at national-level to claim a big share in the upcoming Lok Sabha election. However, the party is still hopeful and exploring legal options to challenge the decision of the Election Commission.
The EC withdrew the national party status of the TMC, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) on Monday.
"The party is exploring legal options to challenge this decision by EC," a TMC source said on Monday.
The Mamata Banerjee-led party did not issue any official reaction. The Opposition BJP mocked the TMC following the development.
"TMC lost the national party status & will be recognised as a regional party. Didi's aspiration to grow TMC finds no place as people know TMC runs a most corrupt, full of appeasement & terror govt. Govt's fall is also certain as people of WB will not tolerate this govt for long," BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar said in a tweet.
What EC said
In an order issued on Monday, the EC said that NCP and TMC will be recognised as state parties in Nagaland and Meghalaya respectively, based on their performance in the recently concluded assembly elections.
TMC's journey so far
The TMC was formed on January 1, 1998, after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee left the Congress to form her own political party.
After two unsuccessful attempts in 2001 and 2006, the party came to power by defeating the Left Front in 2011, riding the crest of massive public outrage against the communists.
The party, in recent years, has tried to expand its footprint across the country to pose a direct challenge to the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. However, the efforts did not bear much fruit.
List of national parties
The BJP, Congress, CPI(M), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), National People's Party (NPP) and the AAP are now national parties.
Also read- AAP now national party; Mamata's TMC, NCP, CPI lose status
