This surely isn’t the kind of start that the Trinamul Congress was hoping to get in this early quarter of the New Year, a year scheduled to be packed with elections, except, maybe, take heart from the fact that the party finally managed to open its account beyond the boundaries of Bengal after a formidable period of time.

A shocking defeat on home turf in Murshidabad’s Sagardighi, a seat the Trinamul had won three times on the trot since 2011; drawing yet another blank in Tripura; and winning only five seats in Meghalaya summarized the party’s performance in the first set of polls this season.

Left-backed Congress candidate Bayron Biswas emerged as the surprise winner in the Sagardighi Assembly bypolls, a seat left vacant by the untimely death of Trinamul minister Subrata Saha, by defeating his nearest rival Debashish Banerjee of the ruling dispensation by a comprehensive margin of 22,986 votes. That’s after making good the nearly 50,000 vote margin that the Trinamul had maintained in the 2021 polls and in which the Congress had finished third after the BJP.

The Sagardighi result ensured that the Congress would be finally able to wipe off its blemish of not having a single MLA in the state Assembly, an ignominy it suffered with the Left for the first time since Independence in the 2021 polls. Biswas, alongside ISF leader Naushad Siddiqui, would now be the only two non-BJP Opposition members of the House.

Trinamul supremo Mamata Banerjee called the Congress win in Sagardighi a victory for an “immoral alliance” achieved by “playing the communal card”.

“I don’t blame anyone for the Sagardighi results. Sometimes things do happen in elections and verdicts do not always go in your favour. But I strongly condemn the immoral alliance struck by the Left and Congress which won because the BJP’s vote share in the area was transferred to the Congress this time,” she said.

Banerjee continued, “The BJP is known to play the communal card. But it’s unfortunate that the CPM and Congress played a bigger communal card than the BJP this time. It’s a lesson for us. We can never listen to the CPM or the Congress and can never join hands with them.”

“They may have won the seat, but they have suffered a moral defeat,” she declared.

“But there’s no need to worry. The Trinamul Congress alone is enough to fight the politics of communalism, hatred and immorality. I take this as my challenge to stop this political drama which is being scripted by these three parties and I assure you no one can touch the TMC,” Banerjee stated.

Upbeat after the Sagardighi results, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury called it a “reflection of minority community members seeing through Mamata Banerjee’s design of maintaining covert understanding with PM Modi”.

“Just like the minorities can usher unconditioned love, they can also kick you beyond the seven seas,” Chowdhury said, adding that this result would surely have positive impacts on the party in the upcoming panchayat polls.

“If the panchayat polls are allowed to happen in a free and fair manner, the TMC will be washed away,” Chowdhury asserted.

Banerjee, however, was reluctant to attach too much importance to Chowdhury’s statement. “I have the support of the minorities and I love them. It would be foolish to make a sweeping statement like that based on the results of just one election in just one seat,” she said.

She did sound happy, though, on her party’s performance in Meghalaya where the TMC bagged five seats and garnered 13.79 per cent votes. “I congratulate the people of Meghalaya for putting us in this position within just six months of initiating our drive in that state. This would help us in our resolve to attain national party status,” Banerjee said.

The last time the party had an MLA from the region was in Manipur who jumped ship to the BJP ahead of the 2022 state polls.

But considering the pre-poll hype in Meghalaya and the fact that the party fielded 58 candidates in the 59 seats which went for polls in that state the winning figure may not sound music to the TMC top brass in Calcutta. The challenge would certainly now be to hold on to the local leaders like Mukul Sangma and strengthen the party’s grassroots base simultaneously.

The TMC’s poll performance in Meghalaya was equally matched by the Congress which was perceived to be struggling to retain a foothold in that state after Sangma joined ranks with Banerjee along with 12 Congress MLAs last year leaving the party in a lurch.

TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, though, tweeted: “… I wish to reiterate our commitment towards the people of this beautiful hill state that we will continue to be a responsible opposition & keep working tirelessly to serve the people wholeheartedly in the times to come.”

Not much was spoken about the party’s performance in Tripura though where it failed to secure even 1 per cent votes and, as predicted, not having a single seat in its kitty despite contesting in 22 out of the 60 seats which were up for grabs.

“The BJP has a very slender majority in Tripura and things can go either way. But the BJP can purchase MLAs as is their habit,” Mamata Banerjee said without offering any insight into the possible reasons for her party’s continued poor show in that state.