Vice Presidential Election 2022: Margaret Alva, Opposition’s vice-presidential candidate, on Friday termed the Trinamool Congress’ decision to abstain from voting in the Vice Presidential Election 2022 as ‘disappointing’ and said this was not the time for “whataboutery, ego or anger”.
The statement from Alva came a day after the TMC said it would abstain from the upcoming vice-presidential election, as it does not agree with the way the Opposition candidate was decided without keeping the party in the loop.
“The TMC’s decision to abstain from voting in the VP election is disappointing. This isn’t the time for ‘whataboutery’, ego or anger. This is the time for courage, leadership & unity. I believe, @MamataOfficial, who is the epitome of courage, will stand with the opposition,” Alva said in a Twitter post.
In response to Margaret Alva, the TMC said it has nothing against her as a candidate and will never support NDA nominee Jagdeep Dhankhar, but has taken a principled strand’ of abstaining to protest against the way her name was unilaterally’ decided by other opposition parties.
The leaders of 17 Opposition parties, at a meeting, decided to choose Margaret Alva as VP candidate.
However, the leaders of the TMC and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) were not present at the meeting that took place at the residence of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar last Sunday.
In response to Alva’s tweet, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh on Friday said, “Our national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee clearly said yesterday that we are against the way Margaret Alva’s name was decided unilaterally as the vice presidential candidate in that meeting. There is no other issue involved.”
On the other hand, Abhishek Banerjee, the nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, on Thursday alleged that the Opposition candidate was decided without proper consultation and deliberation with his party, which has 35 MPs in both houses of Parliament.
(With inputs from PTI)
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