TMC won't back Margaret Alva, will abstain from vice presidential election

In a major setback for the Opposition ahead of the Vice Presidential battle, the Trinamool Congress party has announced that it will abstain from the elections. Trinamool Congress General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee said that the party would not support either of the candidates and would abstain from the election. 

Also Read: Mamata breathes fire on BJP at mega Martyrs' Day rally in Kolkata

The manner in which the opposition candidate was decided without proper consultation with a party with 35 MPs in both Houses made us decide to abstain from the voting process, Banerjee told media persons, adding that the question of supporting the Dhankar does not even arise. 

Abhishek further said that the party does not agree with the process by which the Opposition candidate was named without keeping it in the loop. He said there was no consultation or discussion with the TMC, and that is why it cannot support the Opposition nominee

In a scenario where on the one hand, the TMC is upset over being ignored by the Opposition and, on the other, the fact that it does not see eye to eye with Jagdeep Dhankar, it is only obvious that Mamata's party would have no option but to abstain, TMC sources said.

Eighty-year-old Alva is pitted against former West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar. At the time of filing her nomination, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, NCP's Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut, Samajwadi Party's Ram Gopal Yadav, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, DMK's Tiruchi Siva, CPI-M's Sitaram Yechury and MDMK's Vaiko were present.

Trinamool Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party leaders were missing at the nomination centre. The two parties also went unrepresented at the opposition meeting that decided on fielding Alva. Pawar then said he was in touch with both TMC leader Mamata Banerjee and AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal.

Also Read: NCP chief Sharad Pawar dissolves all party cells, departments after MVA collapse

• Jagdeep Dhankar
• Mamata Banerjee
• Margaret Alva
• Opposition
• TMC
• vice presidential election