‘Not consulted’: TMC to abstain from V-P election
TMC leaders said that Alva shares a very good equation with Mamata Banerjee but that the vice-presidential pick cannot be based on personal relations
Kolkata, New Delhi: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) announced on Thursday that it will abstain from voting in the vice-presidential election on August 6 as the party was “not consulted” before Margaret Alva of the Congress was selected as the Opposition nominee -- a development that once again highlighted the lack of unity among Opposition parties as they bid to take on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The TMC is the second-largest opposition party in Parliament, with 23 Lok Sabha and 13 Rajya Sabha members, after the Congress.
“The TMC will abstain in the upcoming vice-presidential election. The question of supporting the National Democratic Alliance (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 process,” said Abhishek Banerjee, TMC’s all-India general secretary, who is the nephew of party supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
The decision, taken during a meeting between Mamata Banerjee and party MPs after the TMC’s flagship annual political rally on Thursday, also highlights recent fissures between the party and the Congress over who will take the lead in pitching a national alternative to the BJP.
The closed-door meeting was attended by 32 TMC MPs. The party chief left it to the MPs to make a final decision, and 85% of them said that the party should abstain from voting, people aware of the developments said.
Asked whether the TMC was holding the Congress responsible for the situation, and if this would weaken Opposition unity ahead of the 2024 general elections, Abhishek Banerjee said: “I won’t get into nitpicking at the moment. We had proposed three to four names and a consultation was in process. But they announced the candidate without discussing with the TMC.”
He added that initially the Congress had called a meeting for consultations, but the venue was suddenly changed, and the meeting was later held at Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar’s residence. Asked whether the TMC was invited, he replied: “I have no information. If they had sent an invitation they should have furnished it.”
TMC leaders said that Alva shares a very good equation with Mamata Banerjee but that the vice-presidential pick cannot be based on personal relations.
“Whatever happened is not right and healthy for Opposition unity. But that doesn’t mean there is no opposition unity because that is not restricted to the election of the President or Vice-President. The bigger fight is on the road. We have to transcend our egos,” Abhishek Banerjee said.
The announcement sent shock waves in the Opposition camp, and some leaders attempted to refute the TMC’s allegations.
“Congress president Sonia Gandhi spoke to Mamata Banerjee twice in the vice-presidential election. The West Bengal CM told her she doesn’t have any candidate and will accept any nominee unanimously chosen by other Opposition parties,” a senior Congress leader claimed, asking not to be named.
Opposition leader called up his party colleague, who is regularly in touch with TMC lawmakers, to say, “See, what has Mamata done. you were always talking to them.”
The TMC’s decision comes even as the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by the BJP, picked West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar as its candidate for the vice-president election. Dhankhar and the TMC government in Bengal have been at loggerheads through his entire term.
On July 17, Sharad Pawar, announced the name of Congress veteran Alva as the Opposition’s pick for Vice President, saying that 17 parties were on board. The TMC’s decision to not support Alva further weakens her chances to put up tough fight against NDA’s nominee Dhankhar.
To be sure, Dhankhar is almost certain to win anyway since the NDA has an overwhelming majority in the two Houses of Parliament which form the electoral college for the vice-presidential poll.
People aware of the matter said that in Thursday’s meeting, chaired by Mamata Banerjee, the MPs discussed “aggressive” strategies the party should take in the ongoing Parliament session.
“You will see that inside the house, outside the house, on the streets in Bengal and other states, TMC is going to be a force to reckon with when it comes to taking on the BJP’s might. We will have a road map for 2024. We are open to any kind of discussion,” who said.
Meanwhile, Congress Lok Sabha leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, also a key member of the Congress party’s West Bengal unit, hit out at the TMC, alleging that the party was supporting the BJP.
“The TMC and the BJP are just two sides of the same coin. When all non-BJP parties were issuing a joint statement against the misuse of central agencies against Sonia Gandhi, TMC and AAP didn’t sign it. AAP however lent its support verbally,” he said.
The Bengal BJP mocked the Opposition for not being able to come to a consensus.
“The TMC’s decision to abstain from voting in the vice-presidential election is just like wearing a helmet, because they saw what happened to the opposition candidate in the presidential poll. We have all seen where the Opposition unity is heading,” said party leader Debjit Sarkar.
NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu registered a thumping victory over Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha in the presidential election in the result announced on Thursday.