West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee has claimed she was not consulted by the Opposition for picking up Margaret Alva as the joint Opposition candidate for the post of Vice-President, but Opposition leaders claim the opposit.
Shocked by Mamata’s refusal to back Alva, Opposition leaders, including those from the Congress, claim that three days before Alva’s name was announced by NCP chief Sharad Pawar, TMC chief had assured Congress president Sonia Gandhi of her support to any common Opposition candidate for the VP’s post.
Alva’s name was finalised at a meeting of Opposition parties hosted by Pawar in Delhi. Significantly, TMC skipped the meeting and Pawar could not reach out to Mamata as she was too preoccupied to take his call.
Opposition sources claimed that the Congress president called Mamata on July 15 in the afternoon to discuss the Vice-Presidential election.
“The TMC chief told Sonia that she (Mamata) did not have any candidate in mind and she would support any common opposition candidate. But after the NDA announced West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar as its VP candidate on July 16, Sonia sent a message to Mamata to discuss the VP elections. But the TMC chief did not get back,” sources said.
They said when no TMC leader showed up at Opposition leaders’ meeting at Pawar’s residence on July 18 to decide the name of the common candidate for the VP’s post, Pawar called up Mamata. But she did not come on line even though Pawar waited for nearly 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, criticising the TMC decision to abstain from voting in the VP election, Alva reminded Mamata: “The TMC’s decision to abstain from voting in the VP election is disappointing. This isn’t the time for ‘whataboutery’, ego or anger. This is the time for courage, leadership and unity. I believe Mamata, who is the epitome of courage, will stand with the Opposition.”
Three days later, TMC’s general secretary and Mamata’s all-power nephew announced the TMC will abstain in the VP election. “The question of supporting the NDA candidate doesn’t even arise and the way the Opposition candidate was decided without proper consultation and deliberation with a party which has 35 MPs in both Houses, we have decided unanimously to abstain from the voting,” he said.
“We had proposed three to four names and a consultation was in process. But they announced the candidate without discussing and consulting with the TMC,” he added.
NDTV quoted Trinamool’s Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek O’Brien saying, “This candidate was cooked up by folks in Delhi, we were given a 10-minute notice... You can’t cook up names and take us for granted, treat us as equals.”
However, leaders of the Left and the Congress alleged Mamata’s decision to abstain from voting was decided at her meeting with Dhankar and Assam CM at Darjeeling earlier this month.