Armed with the Government’s chaotic handling of the security situation in Nagaland, the Trinamul Congress is gearing up full swing to launch a more aggressive campaign against the NDA regime both in the state and the centre.

AITC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee landed in the national capital on Tuesday and joined the protesting MPs in Parliament premises in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue.

He interacted with party colleagues and others for a while.

On Nov 29, Dola Sen and Shanta Chhetri of Trinamool Congress, nine other MPs including Priyanka Chaturvedi of Shiv Sena, and Chhaya Verma of Congress were suspended for the remaining period of the Session.

Trinamul Congress has lately tried to establish contacts in Nagaland which has a sizeable Bengali population – both Hindus and Muslims – in hubs like Dimapur, state capital Kohima and certain remote areas such as Zunheboto and Mokokchung.

“Our leader Mamata Banerjee has been very popular in northeastern states including Nagaland, Tripura and Manipur. In Nagaland as a Congress leader, she has campaigned more than once along with other Bengal leaders such as Priya Ranjan Das Munshi,” a party leader said.

Sources said a former Nagaland state unit Congress chief Shikiho Sema, now deceased, had utilised her services more than once. Those contacts will have to be revived as “people of Nagaland know the peace issue has been mishandled”.

The incumbent Neiphiu Rio-regime in the state has BJP as a key alliance and deputy chief minister Y Patton (of BJP) holds the Home portfolio.

Trinamul leaders see the recent December 4 nightmarish incident that claimed 15 Naga lives as “gross failures” on the part of both the Nagaland government as well as the centre.

“It is time Trinamul is able to project itself as a viable alternative in Nagaland which goes to the polls in 2023 alongside Meghalaya and Tripura,” another leader said.

Mamata’s trusted lieutenants Sushmita Dev, Shantanu Sena, and Prasun Banerjee were supposed to visit the violence-hit Mon district on December 6 but canceled the same as prohibitory orders were clamped.

In the northeast, the opposition to the BJP has been given a boost after Trinamul Congress took up the battle with such earnestness in Tripura civic polls.

Sources say just like Congress is in a “static and deep freezer mood” at the national level, the CPI-M has been in such a situation since 2018.

TMC MP, Sushmita Dev has said a meeting of Chief Ministers from the northeast should be called to review AFSPA.