TMC stands firm on V-P poll abstention, but worries about blowback persist | Political Pulse News,The Indian Express
Some senior leaders are concerned about how the move will play out in north Bengal and the effect on the party's minority vote bank.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) is officially holding firm on its decision to abstain from the vice-presidential elections, but the move has engendered fears in the organisation that it will be viewed as giving the BJP a walkover at a time the Opposition party is on the back foot in the state. A senior party functionary also expressed concern about how it will affect the party’s hold on the minority vote bank.
The Mamata Banerjee-led party took the decision on Thursday following a meeting of its MPs in Kolkata. The Trinamool Congress had taken the lead to field a joint Opposition candidate for the presidential elections and all the anti-BJP outfits ended up choosing TMC leader Yashwant Sinha. But the NDA’s decision to nominate Droupadi Murmu, now the President-elect, put the TMC in a bind as opposing a candidate from a tribal community could have opened it up to attacks from the BJP and eroded its tribal vote bank. Mamata Banerjee said the party could have considered supporting Murmu had the BJP made the announcement earlier, and Sinha skipped Bengal during his campaign.
The BJP then bowled a wrong’un at the Trinamool by nominating Jagdeep Dhankhar as the NDA’s vice-presidential candidate. As the governor of West Bengal, Dhankhar had repeated run-ins with the state government and the ruling party’s leaders, who accused him of partisanship. Speculation that something was afoot first emerged when Banerjee met Dhankhar and Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma in Darjeeling last week. On Sunday, TMC skipped the meeting in New Delhi at which Margaret Alva was chosen as the Opposition’s vice-presidential poll nominee.
After Thursday’s meeting, TMC number two and Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee said the party would not support Dhankhar and underlined that it could not vote for Alva either as it had “not been consulted” about her candidature.
“Mamata Banerjee asked every party MP what the stand should be,” said a senior TMC MP. “She pointed out how the TMC was informed only 15 minutes before the meeting was called. Moreover, towards the end of the presidential poll meeting, Sharad Pawar did not allow her to speak. The party cannot be taken for granted and the feeling was that Opposition unity had somehow only become the Trinamool’s responsibility.”
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