Agartala, Nov. 29: More than 200 Congress workers joined the Trinamul Congress at the party’s rally in Khowai subdivision of West Tripura yesterday.

Trinamul president Dulal Chandra Das said his party had built up a strong base in the state in the late ’90s. In the 1999 Lok Sabha polls, party candidate for the West Tripura seat, Sudhir Ranjan Mazumder, secured the second position ahead of the Congress candidate.

“In the past two years more than 25,000 families, traditionally owing allegiance to the Congress, joined us out of frustration with the Congress’s organisational inertia, corruption and failure to protest the anti-people activities of the PCC, ” Das said.

“There were some setbacks in subsequent years, but since 2005 we have been steadily gaining ground. In the April Lok Sabha polls, we offered to fight in alliance with the Congress but the PCC president dismissed our offer and consequently Congress candidates lost the polls trailing in all the 60 Assembly segments.”

Trinamul Congress would like to contest all seats in the upcoming elections to the Autonomous District Council and civic bodies next year “with reasonable success in a number of them”, Das said.

Party chief Mamata Banerjee would visit the state twice next year to address meetings in all the four districts of the state to strengthen the party’s base, Das said.

“We are sure that what has happened in West Bengal will be replicated in Tripura with Trinamul emerging as the main Opposition to the CPM.”

Aspirants for the PCC president’s post have been summoned to Delhi by AICC general secretary V. Narayanswamy on December 2 for a discussion on incumbent chief Samir Ranjan Barman’s replacement.

“Narayanswamy has summoned seven party leaders, including five MLAs, to take an undertaking from them that they will accept the AICC’s choice of an ad hoc PCC chief till organisational elections are held,” dissident party leader and former MLA Tapas De said.

“Narayanswamy had directed Barman on November 6 not to directly handle the issue of party elections and hand over the responsibility of distributing membership forms to district presidents but he has violated the directive blatantly by using the name of a senior AICC functionary in Delhi,” De said.