Kolkata: Opposition's vice-presidential candidate Margaret Alva on Saturday said the Trinamool Congress (TMC) still has time to reconsider its decision of not participating in the August 6 election and urged it to allow its MPs to vote according to their conscience.
Taking to Twitter, she wrote, "The TMC is an important member of the opposition block. Being ‘neutral’ in the crucial election of the VP of India, doesn’t help the opposition. It only helps the ruling party. There is yet time to reconsider this decision & allow TMC MPs to vote as per their conscience.”
Meanwhile, TMC state general secretary and spokesperson Kunal Ghosh stated that the party is not against Alva.
“I once again state that TMC is not against Margaret Alva but is against the way the candidate was selected,” Ghosh mentioned.
State BJP president Sukanta Majumdar said that he would still urge the TMC to vote for NDA candidate Jagdeep Dhankhar who was also the former Governor of Bengal.
“We are winning but would still urge the TMC to vote for Dhankhar. If they don’t want to, they can side with Margaret Alva. But the bottom line is the NDA candidate is winning,” mentioned Majumdar.
It may be noted that breaking silence on July 21, TMC national secretary Abhishek Banerjee had announced that the party had decided to ‘abstain’ themselves from the voting process for the Vice President election.
Banerjee was heard stating that TMC was not ‘consulted’ while selecting Margaret Alva as the candidate of the opposition.
