Kolkata, Nov 2 (IANS) After being unanimously re-elected the national chairperson of the Trinamol Congress, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Wednesday said her party will now strive to become a national organisation and increase its strength in Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh.
Banerjee’s name was proposed by party general secretary and Minister of State for Shipping Mukul Roy and seconded by all the delegates by show of hands at the Netaji Indoor Stadium.
Around 2,600 party delegates from West Bengal, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Assam, Jharkhand and Manipur attended the session.
‘I am very happy to see all my party workers here. A leader doesn’t make workers, it is the workers who make leaders. It is you who have made me,’ Banerjee said after her re-election.
This is the third time that Banerjee has been elected Trinamool chairperson. Earlier, she was elected to the top post in the organisational polls held in 2001 and 2006.
‘We need our presence in four states to become a national party. I am confident that we can increase our strength in Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh,’ she said.
After ending the 34-year-old rule of the Left Front in the state, the Trinamool has already launched its ‘Mission 2013’ against the communists in Tripura — the last Left citadel in the country.
The Trinamool currently has five legislators in the Arunachal assembly and provides outside support to the Congress government of the state.
‘Right now, with altogether 26 MPs in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha, we are functioning as the control button of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the centre,’ Trinamool Congress MP Suvendu Adhikary said at the meeting.
‘We want whenever the next Lok Sabha elections are held, whether it is 2012, 2013 or 2014, we should strive to play a much bigger role in the next central government,’ he added.
