Mamata Banerjee's TMC says no question of backing NDA's Jagdeep Dhankhar, will abstain from Vice Presidential polls

Kolkata: The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress will abstain from voting in Vice Presidential election scheduled for 6 August, party MP and general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said Thursday.

"No question of supporting NDA Vice Presidential candidate (Jagdeep Dhankhar)," Abhishek Banerjee said. He also expressed objection with the way the Opposition nominee for the post was decided without keeping TMC in loop.

He further claimed that the decision of Opposition Vice President candidate was taken without proper consultation and deliberation with Trinamool Congress which has 35 MPs in both houses.

NDA has fielded West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar as its candidate for the post of Vice President of India.

It is worth mentioning the Trinamool Congress' decision of not participating in the Vice Presidential polls comes after Mamata Banerjee met Dhankhar and Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sharma in Darjeeling last week.

NDTV reported its sources saying that Dhankhar had asked Mamata Banerjee to support him in the Vice Presidential election next month.

Notably, Dhankhar has been at loggerheads with the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government since he assumed charge as governor on 30 July, 2019.

Margaret Alva is the joint Opposition candidate for the Vice Presidential election. Hours after NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar named Alva as the joint vice-presidential candidate of 18 opposition parties last week, the TMC said it would clear its stance on the nomination by 21 July.

"Margaret Alva has a good equation with Mamata Banerjee but Vice President of the country cannot be elected based on personal equations. So the party has certain issues which were left to MPs to decide and 85 per cent of them said, we should abstain from voting process," Abhishek Banerjee said today.

A report by ToI mentioned TMC Lok Sabha MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay had indicated that the party would not be attending the meeting of the opposition parties called by Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, over the choice of the candidate.

With inputs from agencies

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