Congress bows to Mamata Banerjee, withdraws RS candidate

KOLKATA: Congress has fallen in line, after fielding a candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections in West Bengal against the wishes of chief minister Mamata Banerjee. Following the withdrawal of its nominee Abdul Mannan, Trinamool Congress’ Mukul Roy, Kunal Ghosh, Nadimul Haq and Vivek Gupta and Tapan Sen of CPM were elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

“I had to file the nomination as I was instructed by my party high command to contest the elections and today I have withdrawn my candidature as I was asked to do so by my high command. You can call the Congress high command’s decision of not contesting the polls at the eleventh hour as a sacrifice for the sake of our alliance with Trinamool Congress, both at the Centre and in West Bengal,” Mannan told reporters after withdrawing his candidature.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had turned down AICC member Shakil Ahmed’s request to allow Congress to contest and win a Rajya Sabha seat. She had argued that Congress did not have the required number of MLAs to win a seat on its own strength. Congress would have had to take support of Left parties to ensure victory of their candidate and this would have led to a rupture in its alliance with Trinamool.

West Bengal industry minister and senior Trinamool Congress leader Partha Chatterjee had said earlier, “it will be better for us if Congress wins a seat in the Rajya Sabha with support from CPM. People of our state have a very clear idea about Congress’ hobnobbing with CPM.

Once Congress wins the seat, it will be proved again that CPM and Congress are still hand in glove.” Congress sources said CPM could have transferred their votes to Mannan to ensure his victory, even without an understanding with the party, to create fissure in Trinamool’s alliance with Congress. “Our high command has considered this possibility very seriously and taken the decision to back out,” said a senior state Congress leader.