All India Trinamool Congress


All India Trinamool Congress is an Indian national political party mostly active in West Bengal. The party is led by its founder and current chief minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee. Following the 2019 general election, it is currently the fifth-largest party in the Lok Sabha with 22 seats. Since its inception the party has been at the forefront of the anti-communist movement in West Bengal.

History

After being a member of the Indian National Congress for over 26 years, Mamata Banerjee formed her own party of Bengal, the "Trinamool Congress", which was registered with the Election Commission of India during mid-December 1999.  The Election Commission allotted to the party an exclusive symbol of Jora Ghas Phul.
On 2 September 2016 election commission recognized AITC as a national political party.

Nandigram movement

In December 2006, the people of Nandigram were given notice by Haldia Development Authority that major portion of Nandigram would be seized and 70,000 people be evicted from their homes. People started movement against this land acquisition and Trinamool Congress led the movement. Bhumi Uchchhed Pratirodh Committee was formed against land grabbing and eviction. On 14 March 2007 the police opened firing and killed 14 villagers. Many more went missing. Many sources claimed which was supported by CBI in its report, that armed CPM cadres, along with police, fired on protesters in Nandigram Many intellectuals protested on the streets and this incident gave birth to a new movement. SUCI leader Nanda Patra led the movement.

Post-Nandigram/Singur elections

In the 2009 Lok Sabha election, Trinamool Congress won 19 seats in West Bengal.
In the 2010 Kolkata municipal election, the party won 97 out of 141 seats. It also won a majority of other municipalities.

Presence in other states

Trinamool in Tripura

Under the leadership of former leader of opposition and then MLA of Tripura, Sudip Roy Barman, six MLAs defected from INC along with many ex ministers, ex members of legislative assembly, senior state and district leaders along with thousands of party workers and supporters who joined AITC to fight the communists in Tripura. Tripura Pradesh Trinamool Congress is working in Tripura to establish Ma Mati Manush government in Tripura.

Trinamool in Manipur

In the 2012 assembly elections of Manipur, AITC won 8 seats, got 10% of the total votes & became the only opposition party in the Manipur Legislative Assembly. In the 2017 assembly elections the party won only one seat from Bishnupur & polled 5.4% of the total votes cast in the elections. Its lone Member of Legislative Assembly, Tongbram Robindro Singh supported Bharatiya Janata Party in forming government in Manipur in 2017. Later, Robindro Singh withdrew support from the Bharatiya Janata Party following the disqualification of 7 of its members to grant support the Indian National Congress as of 18 June 2020.

Trinamool in Kerala

Since 2012 the state unit is there in Kerala. Party fought in 2014 Indian general election and in 2016 Kerala Legislative Assembly election. In Assembly Election the candidates were contested without party symbol due to some technical issues.
From 2019 Mr. Shamsu Payanigal is leading the Party as the President and Mr. Suresh Velayudhan is leading as the State General Secretary.
Mr. Siby Thomas leading as the state Organizing Secretary. While Derek O'Brien is the Observer of the State.

Electoral performance

In the 2011 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, the Trinamool Congress-led alliance that included the INC and SUCI won 227 seats in the 294-seat legislature. Trinamool Congress alone won 184 seats, enabling it to govern without an alliance. Subsequently, it won a by-election in Basirhat and two Congress MLAs switched to TMC, giving it a total of 187 seats.
Now the party has got a National Party Status, expanding its base in Tripura, Assam, Manipur, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Sikkim, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh. In Kerala, the party contested from five seats in 2014 general elections.
On 18 September 2012, TMC Chief, Mamata Banerjee, announced her decision to withdraw support to the UPA after the TMC's demands to undo government-instituted changes including FDI in retail, increase in the price of diesel and limiting the number of subsidised cooking gas cylinders for households, were not met.
In the 1998 Lok Sabha polls, TMC won 7 seats. In the next Lok Sabha election that was held in 1999, Trinamool Congress won 8 seats with BJP, thus increasing its tally by one. In 2000, TMC won the Kolkata Municipal Corporation Elections. In the 2001 Vidhan Sabha elections, TMC won 60 seats with Congress. In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, TMC won 1 seat with BJP. In the 2006 Vidhan Sabha elections, TMC won 30 seats with BJP.
In the 2011 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, TMC won a majority of 184 seats. Mamata Banerjee became the Chief Minister. In the following 2016 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, TMC retains its majority and won 211 seats.

General election results

State Legislative Assembly Elections

YearElectionParty LeaderSeats WonSeats ContestedPercentage of votesChange of SeatsResult
2001Assembly election, 2001Mamata Banerjee6022630.66% 60Opposition
2006Assembly election, 2006Mamata Banerjee3025735.93% 30Opposition
2011Assembly election, 2011Mamata Banerjee18422638.93% 154Government
2016Assembly election, 2016Mamata Banerjee21129344.91% 27Government

Political slogan

Ma Mati Manush was primarily a slogan, coined by All India Trinamool Congress chief and current Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The term is literally translated as "Mother, Motherland and People". The slogan became very popular in West Bengal at the time of the 2011 assembly election. Later, Mamata Banerjee wrote a Bengali book with the same title. A song was also recorded with the same title to glorify the theme. According to a report published in June 2011, it was one of the six most popular political slogans in India at that time.

ECI status

After the 2014 Indian general elections, AITC has a national party status, because AITC has received 6% of the vote from five different states.
In 2016,the party was recognised as state party in four states, satisfying one of the conditions of the Election Commission.
Although after the 2019 Indian general election, the party status is under revision by the Election Commission of India.

Leadership

The highest decision-making body of the party is its Core Committee.