Kolkata: After having relegated the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) to a distant third in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee is keen to unseat the 23-year-old Marxist government in the Indian state of Tripura.

Mamata has been looking to expand her party to earn the coveted national party status. Her party already emerged as the principal opposition party in Tripura after six dissident Congress party legislators joined it last June.

“The people of Bengal had unseated the 34-year old Left Front government to form Trinamool Congress Now, it is the turn of Tripura in 2018,” Banerjee, in a first ever public meeting in state capital Agartala.

Throughout her address she targeted the lack of development in the state and accused the CPM of having failed the people both in West Bengal and Tripura. “The Left Front has done nothing to bring development in any sector, be it in plain or hilly areas in these 23 years...The government even failed to set up a hospital that will provide good medical services here. In Bengal, the TMC government has built 41 hospitals offering multi-speciality facilities,” Banerjee said.

Urging the youth work towards the formation of the TMC government in the state, she herself got a rapturous welcome at the Swami Vivekananda Stadium in the state capital.

“Tripura and West Bengal are like twin brother and sister. So, the whole Bengal would support the Marxist-ruled state to bring poribortan [change]. The TMC will surely extend support to develop education, health, trade, industries and others,” she said.

She also claimed credit for the broad-gauge railway, having initiated the project as union railway minister. “Both the CPM and BJP are spreading rumours that they have introduced the railway project in Tripura. In reality, I took the initiative in 2010 as the railway minister,” she said.

Mamata is targeting the Bengalis that form 70 per cent of the state’s population. “People from Agartala travel to Kolkata for all basic needs, including health, education and even to travel to other parts of the country. They see the development work undertaken by us and they feel that Tripura can also progress under TMC,” Mamata said.

However, for Mamata, the biggest challenge lies in relating to the various tribal groups of the state and addressing their grievances and also strengthening her party’s grass-root presence. “We are working towards creating a collation by allying key leaders of ethnic and religious identities. Their role will be crucial in the days ahead,” said a senior TMC leader in-charge of the state.

CPM though looks worried as West Bengal state secretary Surya Kanti Mishra met party workers ahead of Mamata’s visit narrating tales of lawlessness in Bengal under the TMC rule. The party though is putting up a brave face as it believes that TMC’s lack of organisational strength will not make it a relevant factor in 2018. “They will land up dividing the opposition vote, thereby only helping us to consolidate,” said a senior CPM leader.