The Trinamool Congress said here on Thursday that the party’s MPs would abstain from voting in the Vice-Presidential election on August 6. The decision was taken at a meeting of the MPs at the residence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
“The way the Opposition candidate [Margaret Alva of the Congress] had been decided without proper consultation and deliberation with a party which has 35 MPs in both the Houses, we have decided unanimously to abstain from the voting process,” Trinamool general secretary Abhishek Banerjee told journalists after the meeting.
He said almost 85% of the MPs urged party chairperson Ms. Banerjee to abstain from participating in the election.
The Congress and the Left parties accused the Trinamool leadership of working as an agent of BJP. The party’s surprise move comes only a month after Ms. Banerjee played a key role in fielding a joint Opposition candidate for the Presidential election, convening a meeting of Opposition parties, including the Congress, in New Delhi to choose a candidate.
What makes the Trinamool’s decision more intriguing is that the party is not registering its opposition to National Democratic Alliance candidate Jagdeep Dhankhar, who, as West Bengal Governor, had frequent run-ins with the Trinamool leadership, especially the Chief Minister.
Mr. Abhishek, however, said questions of tacit support for him did not arise.
“Dhankhar in his capacity as Governor had acted in a partisan manner under direction of one political party. We have all seen for the past three years how he had constantly attacked people of Bengal. We all decided that no way we will support the NDA candidate,” he said.
Asked if the decision will affect Opposition unity, he said that to maintain it, one had to rise above ego and self-interest. “Opposition unity is not only dependent on voting in Presidential and Vice-Presidential elections. If you want to keep Opposition unity, you have to rise above ego and self-interest. For Opposition unity, we can do floor coordination in Parliament and also take to the streets... but we have to change our approach. We are always ready to work with parties that are opposed to the BJP,” he added.
The Trinamool leader maintained that the party’s objection was to the process of selecting an Opposition candidate “without consulting them”.
