TMC's hope for Northeast shattered

The Trinamool Congress has been attempting to grow outside of West Bengal for some time now in order to provide its leader Mamata Banerjee the national platform she so obviously wants. In addition to attempting to gain ground in Meghalaya, where it had recently received a welcome boost from the addition of 12 Congress MLAs led by former CM Mukul Sangma, it had staked its hopes on Tripura. In Tripura, it ran for 28 seats, and in Meghalaya, it ran for 56.

Meghalaya provided some relief with five seats and more than 13% of the vote, while the former proved to be a washout with no seats and less than 1% of the vote. The Trinamool appears doomed to remain limited to Bengal in the foreseeable future following its disastrous performance in Goa in 2022, where it failed to gain a single seat.

At 8 am, the election results were being counted under heavy security in the three states of Northeast.

With Mukul Sangma, a former chief minister of Meghalaya, and many other important Congress figures joining the TMC, Banerjee's party was ready to face off against the NPP. When 12 of the 17 Congress MLAs, led by Mukul Sangma, joined the TMC in November 2021, the party abruptly became the main opposition force.