Mamata may avoid collision with Congress

Isolated after opposing UPA nominee Pranab Mukherjee for the Presidential election, politically wise Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is avoiding any fresh conflict with the Congress-led centre in the Vice President poll.

“I’ve made it clear that we’ve proposed Gopal Krishna Gandhi and Krishna Bose, persons most suitable for the post of vice-president. However, the Congress has decided on Hamid Ansari. Our leader, Mamata Banerjee, will announce our final decision soon,” Trinamool General Secretary and Union Minister for Railways Mukul Roy, who  represented TMC at the UPA meeting in Delhi, said.
Unfortunately for Mamata, like Kalam, her choice for prez, the former Governor of West Bengal Gopal Gandhi has opted out of the race.

Gandhi, in a letter to Banerjee, uploaded on a social networking site, thanked her for proposing his name for V-P’s post. Hinting that he is not interested in contesting the poll, Gandhi wrote, “The consistency and steadfastness with which you have reposed trust in me, a non-political participant in public life, has touched me”.

“I see in it a reflection of the overwhelming affection which the people of Bengal have extended to me, something which I shall always cherish and can never forget,” Gandhi wrote.

Now, Mamata is left with no choice but Trinamool’s former MP Krishna Bose, who according to Trinamool insiders, ‘doesn’t have the stature and the charisma to become the Vice President’.
“Gopal Krishna Gandhi is a good option for the Vice-Presidential post but Krishna Bose is not the right choice. The post of the vice president is the second highest in the country and we need somebody suitable,” a senior Trinamool Congress leader said. Mamata, shorn of bargaining power, will have to give in to the choice of the senior partner (Congress) in the UPA. The moot point is can save her face in both the elections.

“Banerjee has realised that opposing Pranab Mukherjee in direct confrontation with the centre has cost her dearly. The noose of centrally funded projects on which the state thrives, is being tightened. The possibility of a moratorium or a central grant to bail out the debt-trapped state is a distant dream now,” the senior leader said.

“The Trinamool leader is now left with very little choice. Having declared war with the centre over Presidential candidate, in case of the vice-presidential poll, she will have to go with the UPA nominee or abstain from the election,” a senior political observer said.