Vice Presidential election unravels Opposition unity again

The Vice Presidential election has unravelled the Opposition unity once again as Trinamool Congress on Thursday made a surprise announcement not to vote for joint candidate Margaret Alva by abstaining from the voting after accusing its partners of not consulting them, a charge rubbished by its allies.

This comes even after parties like JMM, which broke ranks during the Presidential election, returned to the Opposition stable to support Alva against NDA's Jagdeep Dhankar, former West Bengal Governor.

This would mean that Alva could get only 198 votes against 234 the Opposition can otherwise garner though NDA and its friendly parties have already pledged Dhankar over 500 votes.

Opposition sources rubbished Trinamool charges that Trinamool Congress was not consulted, saying that Congress president Sonia Gandhi spoke to party supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee twice on the polls.

Mamata told Sonia that she does not have any candidate in her mind and would support a joint candidate proposed by the Opposition, they said.

Sources said Mamata also conveyed this to NCP chief Sharad Pawar who spoke to her on the issue. However she did not come on line when the leaders telephoned her from the Opposition meeting to know her mind.

Pawar had then told the meeting that she had earlier suggested PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti's name but it did not move forward.

Trinamool has said that they will not support Dhankar, with whom Mamata Banerjee led government was at loggerheads, too. Incidentally, Mamata had met Dhankar in Darjeeling when Assam Chief Minister and BJP leader Himanta Biswas Sarma was also present, which Opposition leaders are now pointing out.

Trinamool sources have rejected any deal with the BJP, saying it has decided not to vote for Dhankar also.

Announcing Alva's candidature, Pawar had exuded confidence that both Mamata and Arvind Kejriwal would vote for Alva.

Earlier, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata had said that she could have supported Droupadi Murmu if the government had approached the Opposition in advance, remarks that were seen as an attempt to keep substantial Santhal votes in the state with her party.

Now it is to be seen whether AAP also will follow the Trinamool Congress route. It had announced support for Opposition's Presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha at the last minute.