The Trinamool Congress has decided to abstain from voting in the vice-presidential elections, party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said on Thursday following a high-level meeting of Trinamool MPs with party supremo and Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
The TMC, the Congress and all other parties had jointly fielded Yashwant Sinha in the presidential elections.
The TMC’s decision to abstain from voting comes days after the Left Front and the Congress raised questions on the “timing, content and length” of a “secret meeting” between the Chief Minister and then Bengal Governor and NDA vice-presidential nominee Jagdeep Dhankhar at Darjeeling Raj Bhavan.
“The Trinamool Congress has decided to abstain from voting in the vice-presidential elections,” Abhisek Banerjee, who is also the Diamond Harbour MP and nephew of the Chief Minister, said. He accused the Opposition parties of not consulting Mamata Banerjee before deciding on the name of Margaret Alva as the Opposition candidate.
“The way Jagdeep Dhankhar had conducted himself — much like a BJP member — during his stint as the Bengal Governor, it will not be possible for us to vote for him. And for Madam Margaret Alva, though our leader Mamata Banerjee shares extremely cordial chemistry with her, we are of the view that only good chemistry should not be considered as the only guiding factor for taking such decisions,” he said.
Proffering his party’s apology for not supporting Alva junior, Banerjee said Mamata was not consulted before deciding on the Opposition candidate. When asked about the invitation she was given by NCP chief Sharad Pawar, the TMC leader said the invite had come after Alva’s name had already been decided on.
“We disagree with the process of announcing the Opposition candidate without keeping TMC in the loop. We were neither consulted nor was anything discussed with us. So we can’t support the Opposition nominee,” Banerjee said refuting allegations that the decision was a product of an earlier “secret” parley between Dhankhar and the Chief Minister at Darjeeling where Assam Chief Minister Hemant Biswa Sarma was also present.
“There is a myth about a meeting between the Chief Minister and Mr Dhankhar who was the then Governor … but that is an absolute myth and … I want to destroy the myth … this will be seen in days to come when the TMC will become more aggressive in the national politics,” he said.
The unusually long two-and-a-half-hour meeting took place last Wednesday prompting the Left and the Congress to question the timing, content and long hours of the meeting.
“This is the same way the TMC and Mamta Banerjee is indirectly helping the BJP as she did by abstaining during the CAA and NRC bills which ensured that they had the passage of the Bill,” the Congress leadership said.
CPI(M) State secretary Md Salim said TMC’s stand was a quid pro quo for ED and CBI sparing (for now) TMC leaders in the coal and cattle smuggling cases.
“Only yesterday the CBI placed is first chargesheet in the coal smuggling case where it has dropped the name of top TMC leaders … it is a quid pro quo for that … or else how do you justify the open war between Chief Minister and Governor for three years suddenly ending in a long meeting far away in Darjeeling,” Salim said.