Mamata Banerjee decides to abstain from voting in Vice-Presidential polls

Trinamool Congress Supremo Mamata Banerjee decided to abstain from voting in the Vice-Presidential election on Thursday at a meeting at her residence. Banerjee held the meeting with his party MLAs and all the MPs and all senior leaders at her Kalighat residence, following the July 21 mega rally in the afternoon.

“We are unhappy in the way that the Opposition candidate was selected. We cannot support the NDA candidate and former governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, whose approach towards Bengal. We cannot support him due to our ideology. So, we are abstaining from the voting process. We had proposed a few names and while the consultation was on, suddenly a decision was taken on Margaret Alva,” Trinamool National General secretary Abhishek Banerjee said.

The Trinamool Congress leadership was absent in New Delhi when Opposition consensus candidate Margaret Alva filed her nomination for vice president. Although Banerjee took forward the task of creating opposition unity ahead of the selection of a candidate for vice president, the party’s leaders were not present at the meeting to decide the candidate. This has led to people guessing who the party will vote for in the upcoming election for the country’s vice president.

Despite claiming to be part of the anti-BJP opposition platform, speculation is rife that Trinamool will vote for Jagdeep Dhankhar, the candidate of the BJP-led NDA camp, instead of Alva, the candidate of the 17 opposition parties.

Trinamool state secretary and spokesperson Kunal Ghosh had said that Banerjee will hold a meeting on July 21 and decide on the issue.

On Wednesday, Trinamool distanced itself from the protest in front of Parliament and the party leadership said it was not informed about the protest. “We have not been informed about such a protest. We are not aware of it,” Lok Sabha MP Saugata Ray said.

However, Adhir Chowdhury, Congress MP, said, "We have informed all Opposition parties about the protest." Members of the Opposition held a protest against rising inflation and increase in GST rates near the Gandhi statue in Parliament.

According to sources, Trinamool Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs will reach New Delhi after participating in the July 21 mega rally, which could not be conducted for the last two years physically due to the pandemic.

Banerjee said, "Tomorrow's rally will be against the Centre's autocratic rule and advent of creation of new Bengal."