Trinamool Congress to abstain from vice presidential election, says party leader Abhishek Banerjee

Kolkata: Breaking the silence, Trinamool Congress on Thursday decided to ‘abstain’ themselves from the voting process for the Vice President election.

Addressing the media, TMC national secretary Abhishek Banerjee said that TMC was not ‘consulted’ while selecting Margaret Alva as the candidate of the opposition.

“Someone had said that he had called TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee but he had placed the call after the meeting was over. We had a couple of names in our mind who could have been the opposition candidate. Though, Mamata Banerjee had good terms with Margaret Alva but the way she was named the party has decided to abstain from the voting process,” said Banerjee hinting towards NCP chief Sharad Pawar.

Banerjee also mentioned that this decision was taken by 85 per cent of TMC MPs present in the closed door meeting with party supremo Mamata Banerjee.

“TMC is a democratic party and no one in particular takes any decision. MPs from both the Houses who were present in the meeting requested our party supremo to abstain from the voting,” mentioned the TMC national secretary.

Taking potshots at NDA candidate Jagdeep Dhankhar, Banerjee mentioned that the question doesn’t arise to side with the NDA candidate.

“In last three years when Dhankhar was the Governor of Bengal he behaved as a mouthpiece of a particular political party. He had always maligned the state government. Question doesn’t arise to support the NDA candidate,” added Banerjee.

However, Congress and Left Front slammed TMC and said that with TMCs decision the ‘understanding’ between BJP and TMC got clear.