All India Trinamool Congress

The All India Trinamool Congress (AITC, also knows as TMC or Trinamool Congress, formerly West Bengal Trinamool Congress) is a state political party in West Bengal, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh. Founded in 1 January 1998, it consisted largely of defectors from the Indian National Congress in West Bengal. The party is led by Railway Minister, Mamata Banerjee. Trinamool Congress is currently the second largest member of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition exceeding DMK by one vote. It is currently the sixth largest party in Lok Sabha with 19 seats.

Formation of the party
Mamata Banerjee formed her own party, the "Trinamool Congress", which was registered with the Election Commission of India during mid-December, 1997. The Election Commission alloted to the party an exclusive symbol of Jora Ghas Phul. She entered into an alliance with the BJP in 1999.

Performance in elections
In the 1998 Lok Sabha poll, TMC won 7 seats. One more Lok Sabha election was held in 1999, in which Trinamool Congress won 8 seats with BJP, thus increasing the tally by one. In 2000, TMC won the municipality election, Kolkata Municipal Corporation Election. In 2001 Vidhan Sabha election, TMC won 60 seats with congress(I). In 2004 Lok Sabha election, TMC performed won 1 seat with BJP. In 2006 Vidhan Sabha election, TMC won 30 seats with BJP.

Nandigram movement
In December 2006, the people of Nandigram were given notice by Haldia Development Authority that major portion of Nandigram would be seized and 70,000 people be evicted from their homes. People started movement against this land acquisition and Trinamool Congress led the movement. Bhumi Uchchhed Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) was formed against land grabbing and eviction. On March 14, 2007 the police opened firing and killed 14 villagers. Many more went missing. Many sources claimed which was supported by CBI in its report, that armed CPM cadres, along with police, fired on protesters in Nandigram. A large number of intellectuals protested on the streets and this incident gave birth of a new movement. Trinamool Congress leader Suvendu Adhikari (currently MP of Tamluk) led the movement.

Singur movement
In 2006, West Bengal government decided to set up a car factory for Tata Group by acquiring 1000 acres land in Singur. People of the area protested against this acquisition and Trinamool Congress took leading role in galvanizing peasants against acquisition. Protests went on and Trinamool Congress head Mamata Banerjee went for hunger strike. The movement received support from a section of human rights groups, legal bodies, social activists like Medha Patkar, Anuradha Talwar, Booker prize-winning author Arundhati Roy, and Magsaysay and Jnanpith Award-winning author Mahasweta Devi. In 2008, Tata Group decided to pull out of Singur, and blame was put on Trinamool Congress for loss of potential jobs.

2009 general election
In 2009 Lok Sabha election, Trinamool Congress and its allies won 26 seats in West Bengal. 19 seats were won by TMC itself. 6 were won by INC and one more by SUCI.

2010 municipality elections
Trinamool Congress had won the Kolkata Civic polls as the party won 97 seats out of 141. Trinamool Congress also won renowned BidhanNagar(SaltLake) municipality and majority of the other municipalities.

Leadership



 * Mamata Banerjee, Party leader
 * Derek O'Brien
 * Dinesh Trivedi
 * Mukul Roy
 * Subrata Bakshi
 * Kakali Ghosh Dastidar
 * Sultan Ahmed
 * Chitta Mondal
 * Biman Banerjee
 * Gobinda Chandra Naskar
 * Partha Chatterjee
 * Abhishek Banerjee
 * Ambika Banerjee
 * Javed Ahmed Khan
 * Sadhan Pande
 * Tapas Pal
 * Jyotipriya Mallick
 * Swapan Sadhan Bose
 * Sougata Roy
 * Madan Mitra
 * Somen Mitra
 * Kabir Suman
 * Shatabdi Roy
 * Sisir Adhikari
 * Sucharu Ranjan Haldar
 * Somendra Nath Mitra
 * Priyal Chowdhury
 * Tapash Roy
 * Sudip Bandyopadhyay
 * Haji Nurul Islam
 * Shankudeb Panda
 * Baiswannar Chattyopadhyay
 * Tamoghna Ghosh
 * Paresh Pal
 * Suvendu Adhikary
 * Purnendu Bose
 * Sovondeb Chattopadhyay
 * Sovon Chatterji
 * Bratyo Basu
 * Chandrima Pathak

Sabeer Bhatia
In March 2011 it was announced that Sabeer Bhatia, founder of Hotmail had joined Trinamool Congress and would be working to increase their presence among technologically-savvy voters, as well as to improve the party's reputation in the wake of the Tata Nano affair.