Mamata to address TMC workers in Meghalaya on Dec 13

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is scheduled to address party functionaries in Meghalaya on Tuesday for preparing a roadmap for the assembly elections in the northeastern state due early next year. Led by former chief minister Mukul Sangma, 11 other MLAs of the Opposition Congress had shifted their political allegiance to the TMC in November last year making it the principal opposition party in this hill state.

The polls to elect representatives to the 60-member House in the northeastern state is due before March 8. The TMC supremo is set to address a party workers' convention at State Central Library here on December 13, a senior party leader told PTI.

Of the 12 MLAs who joined the TMC last year, Himalaya Shangpliang resigned from the Assembly and the party last month reducing the strength of the Trinamool Congress in the House to 11.

A TMC functionary said that Mamata Banerjee's visit will boost the morale of the party workers ahead of the 2023 assembly elections.

He said, "The people in Meghalaya are not happy with the National People's Party (NPP)-led government in the state. The ruling dispensation did nothing for the development of the state in the past five years and she will highlight the incompetence of the NPP to run the state." TMC's national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who had visited the state twice this year, will also be accompanying the chief minister, the party official said.