AGARTALA, Aug 19 (TIWN): Keeping eye on the upcoming 2018 Tripura Assembly Election, state unit of Trinamool Congress on Fridayorganised state committee meeting to strengthen its party in Tripura at TMC Bhawan.

However the meeting was presided by TMC Leader Sudip Roy Barman.

Addressing the meeting, TMC leader Sudip Roy Barman said that TMC Supremo Mamata Banerjee has given the Tripura unit 'direction' to emerge victorious in the next Assembly polls due in 2018. All MLAs and other leaders who have joined the TMC from other parties, including the Congress were present at the rally.

Barman said the people of Tripura had become fed up with the Left Front regime and disapproved of the tie-up between the Congress and the Left Front in West Bengal. "With this, the tacit understanding between the Left Front and the Congress came out in the open. Why will the people vote for the Congress as an alternative to the Left Front in Tripura?" he wondered.

If the Left is to be ousted from Tripura, Trinamool Congress is the best option because it is the only "anti-dote for the Left", Barman said.

After her landslide victory in West Bengal, Banerjee and her trusted lieutenant Mukul Roy have been working to expand her party's influence in the North East with Tripura being the prime target.